


Avatar: Betrayal of a Firebender

by JadynRosetta



Series: Avatar: Betrayal series [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Airbender Shiro, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Avatar Keith, Black is a bison, Firebender Keith (Voltron), Firelord Zarkon, Gen, Nations at War, Violence, avatar AU, other characters will appear later - Freeform, please be patient with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-03-17 01:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13648440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadynRosetta/pseuds/JadynRosetta
Summary: Keith isn't what you'd call normal.  He's an orphan with no idea what the world outside his own home is like.  But outside the walls a war caused by the Fire Nation has going on for almost three decades with the Fire Nation slowly winning, and only the Avatar can stop it.  However the Avatar died eighteen years ago.  So who can stop the Fire Nation now?  (ATLA AU)





	1. A Reckless Firebender

_The Avatar, one who can master all four elements, sometimes isn’t there when you need them the most.  Long before the four nations lived in harmony, but everything changed one day.  The Fire Lord had his army attacked the others, only the Avatar can save them._

_The Avatar fought him while he took over the other nations.  He distracted them, by taking their family.  The Fire Lord killed their son in front of them, in a fit of rage the Avatar attacked, but that was their downfall._

_The Fire Lord killed the Avatar and total ruling began.  No one could stop them now, the Fire Nation won._

* * *

_Book 1: Air_

* * *

 

“Get back here!”  Someone shouts, the person was throwing rocks while someone shot by.  A boy looks over his shoulder and sticks his tongue out.  Then more rocks, he yelps and kept running.  He turns on a random street and shot fire at them.  The person who was throwing rocks stops and drops everything.  “DAMMIT KEITH!”  They shout, he laughs.

He smirks and snuck around another binding road and hid away in a small area.  Plopping on the ground he opens the little bag and pulls out his goods.

“Let’s see…”  He says as he wiggles his fingers.  “Some duck, sausage, squid, some pink berries, and lychee nuts.”  Keith smiles and took a piece of duck, still with a confident smirk he says.  “Suckers.  Nine years later and they still can’t catch me.”

He takes another bite and stores the food in a small bag he had.  He quickly changed his clothes wearing a faded red top and brown pants.  He puts his hair up in a normal style amongst the Nation but he prefers it up in a ponytail.  He grabs the small bag full of food and some other things and walks into town.

He walks around the busy town he lived in and hops on a random railing.  Keith loves watching people go by, he can see how others live their lives.  How normal people live their lives.

Taking out a small book and a pen he began to draw a scene of people walking by.  Keith finishes up and smiles, his drawing turned out decent in his eyes.  He puts the book and pen back into the bag and pulling out a pink berry.  He enjoyed the warm sun in the afternoon sky, the Fire Nation was the best place to live.  Even if you’re an orphan.

Keith never really had an easy life, he lost both of his parents at a young age and thus resorts to stealing and living on the streets.  He doesn’t live with other people and prefers it that way, no one will bug him if he’s all alone.  He doesn’t hate people he just doesn’t understand them, and that leads to many believing that he hates other people.

Even though he was alone he taught himself how to firebend.  He did this by observing others and copying their movements, he was a real natural.  Getting it down rather quickly at a young age, besides drawing it was the only thing he was good at.

Besides drawing and bending, Keith did nothing else really.  He just existed, soon enough he’ll die and be forgotten.  Keith decided a long time ago that it was for the best.  No one wants to be remembered as a crummy orphan who stole all his life.  Heck he was a nobody, that much was obvious.  So live a mundane life and wait for death, and if something were to happen then just roll with it.

Though Keith would be lying if he said he liked the way it was, some change of pace would be nice.

* * *

Days go by and everything was the same.  Take food, piss off shopkeepers, go towards the center of town, draw, relax a bit, repeat.  Keith takes a piece of sausage and cooks it with fire bending.  Taking a bite and relaxing like always, he enjoys the sunlight.

He looks around seeing everyone walk around living their life, and a random man walking around wearing a brown cloak, looking around all suspicious like.  Well there’s a new sight…

Keith got up and slowly followed the man.  He bought some food, all fruit, and then proceeded to walk out of the city and into the dry wooded area.  Keith was always a good few feet away from the man, but never fully let him out of his sight.  He was far from the city where no one can see him.

The man puts his hood down and looks around again, Keith stops and gets a good look at the man.  He looked like he was from the Fire Nation, narrow eyes, black hair, pale as the moon.  Only weird thing about him is a white tuft of hair and a scar on his face.  Keith had to admit, he was attractive.

The man whistles and Keith jumps when the sun was blocked out.  He looks up and sees a flying creature though it wasn’t a dragon… plus dragons have been dead for years.  What lands in front of the man was a strange furry animal with six legs, also it was giant.  Keith quickly got out his sketchbook and pen and began to draw the animal, it was something he’s never seen before.

The man hands an apple to the animal, it happily takes it.  The man pets the animals head and smiles.

“There now friend.  You must be starved seeing as how you’ve flown for so long.”  The man says.  The animal makes a low noise.  Keith gave a wide eyed look and stopped drawing for a moment, he did not expect that cute animals voice to be that low.  The man kept comforting the animal, finally it’s big eyes look in Keith’s direction.

D-Did it notice him?

Almost like the animal read his mind he makes another low noise, the man looks at him.

“What’s wrong Black?  You see something?”  He looks in the animal’s, which name is Black, direction.  Though Keith backed himself up a bit the man still spotted him.  The man grabs a staff and points it at him.  “Who goes there?!”

Keith kept himself hidden, the man looked like he meant business.  He got closer, Keith kept backing into the bush and small trees.  He knew if he kept backing up he could make a quick escape and- a root trips him.  He made a noise of discomfort and opened one eye, seeing a towering man over him, staff pointed right at him.

He stares Keith down, Keith flinched and waited for the end.  The man’s eyes suddenly soften and lowers his staff.

“You don’t look like a soldier.”  That got Keith to open his eyes.

“What?”

“I thought you were a part of the Nation’s army.”  He says.  “Guess I was wrong.  What are you doing out here?”

“U-Um…”  Keith didn’t know what to say to the man.  Oh I followed you cause you seemed off, yeah not saying that.  Keith stood up and dusted his pants off.  The man just stares him down.

“You’re not wearing normal clothes either… who are you?”  He asks.  Keith didn’t answer, he held himself close and looked down.

“W-Who are you?”  He asked.

“Heh, I asked first.”  The man says in a playful manner.  “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.”  He sounded so gentle and kind, Keith couldn’t describe it… but it was almost like something a father would say.

“Keith, my name is Keith.”

“Keith huh?  Nice name, I like it.”  He says, Keith messed with his bangs and kept looking down.  “Tell me Keith, why are you following me?”

“Huh?!  I-I wasn’t-”

“I made sure I was alone when walking out of the city.  You must’ve been a good hider for me to not catch you.”  The man smiles.  Keith pouts and refused to look at him.

“Y-You just… you acted weird.  Different, very different.”  He admits, the man cocks his head to the side in confusion.

“You caught on to that didn’t you…?”  He asks.  “Darn… and I thought I was being smooth, guess my acting didn’t work.”  He sounded serious, which got Keith to laugh.

“No, you were very awkward.  Looking around like someone was trying to kill you.”  Keith tried to subdue his laughter, the man gave him an annoyed face and sighs.  He goes back to petting Black.  “You didn’t tell me your name.”  Keith reminds the man.

“Takashi, but people call me Shiro.”

“Shiro… makes sense, I mean your hair is white.”

“Stress.”  Shiro says, Keith smiles and looks at the animal.  “This is Black, he’s my companion.  A great one for flying everywhere.”  He could tell Keith wanted to get closer.  “Don’t worry, he’s friendly.”  Keith got excited and walked up to pet Black’s face.

“I’ve never seen an animal like this before.”

“He’s a flying bison.  Native to the Air Nomads.  These were the first airbenders.”  He says.  Keith looks up at Shiro with curiosity.

“You’re from the Air Nomads?”

“Yes, though since the war there are only a few of us left.”  Shiro pets Black with a sorrowful look.

“War?”

“The war.  It ended when the Avatar was murdered eighteen years ago.”  Shiro said.  “It wasn’t too long ago, surely they teach all Fire Nation people that.”

“I didn’t go to school.”  Keith said, actually ashamed he never went.  It would’ve made reading and bending a hell of a lot easier if he went.

“Ah.”  Shiro nods and took out another apple and fed it to Black.  Black took it and made a loud noise again.  “Sorry buddy, I don’t have anymore.”  That got Keith to look at him.

“A-Are you staying?”

“I have to.  Black is weak and needs to rest.  We’ve been wandering for days.”  Shiro leans against his bison.  “But I’m low on money…”  He sighs.  “What to do…”  Keith smiles and sat next to Shiro.

“Well…”  Keith shrugs.  “I guess I could help with that.”

“Getting Black and I food?”

“Yeah… I mean I am an orphan who’s lived without money.  I can get you food, but it’s my way.  Don’t argue if you can’t handle it.”

“I may be a monk, but I’ll agree to anything if it means food.”

“Good.”  Keith nods.  “I can give you some for now, like these apples I got.”  Keith hands them to Shiro with a smile.  “Tomorrow I’ll show you how to get food the Keith way.”

“The Keith way?  I like the sound of that.”

* * *

Shiro follows Keith into town the next day.  He wore his hood and had his staff and he looked suspicious again.  Keith looks at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Uh Shiro?  You don’t have to wear that.  You look like a native here.”

“I know I do.  I’m just… very cautious.”

“Well they’ll catch you if you’re cautious.”  Keith says, he puts Shiro’s hood down and signals him to follow.  Shiro does and watches Keith sneak around to see the shopkeepers again.  He smirks, Shiro caught on.

“Are you serious?!  You plan on stealing from them?”

“Yes.”  Keith said with all the innocence in the world.  Shiro gave him a look of concern.

“Why?!”

“What’s the big deal?  I’ve been stealing since I was nine years old.”  Keith said, that made Shiro even more concerned.

“Since you were nine- Why are you like this?!”

“I remember someone saying they’ll _agree to anything if it means food_.”

“Ooooh I am so-”

“Shh.”  Keith shuts Shiro up and watches the shopkeepers talk to someone.  “Watch and learn.”  Keith runs up and swipes a few apples and some sausage.  The shopkeeper notices him and snaps.

“Keith!”  That got him to run away.

“Okay Shiro time to go!”  Keith says, the older man screams and runs next to his new friend.  The shopkeeper right on their tail.

“Never listening to you again!  Never ever!”

“So?  You’ll never see me again after this.”  Keith reminds him.  “So this is our special memory together!”

“I hate you so much right now!”  Shiro snaps.

“Relax, I can stop him.”  Keith stops and got into position.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh I’m gonna firebend… duh.”

“And burn them?!”

“Or we can keep running I guess.  Stupid monk.”  Keith ran ahead, Shiro right behind him, the shopkeeper behind Shiro.

“He’s gaining on us.”  Shiro says.  Keith looks back in surprise.

“Huh… he must be sick of me.”  Keith said calmly.  Shiro stops.

“That’s it, I’ll get rid of him.”  Shiro took his staff, with one spin he sends a gust of wind at the shopkeeper.  He looks in surprise, so does Keith.  Shiro takes his arm and runs with Keith.  “Come on, let’s go!”

“R-Right.”  They finally ran to the camp Shiro was at and sigh.  That was crazy.  Keith shot up and points at Shiro.  “You can airbend!”

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”

“Airbender!  I met an airbender!  That is so cool!”  Keith jumps in joy, Shiro raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m not the best at it, only had a few years of training with my master before we got separated.  I haven’t fully mastered airbending.”  He looked a little upset.  “And you, you firebend.”

“Yeah.”  Keith says, he got into position and punched at the air.  Sparks of flames came from his fists and with a sharp kick he sent a wave of fire.  Shiro nods, he was pretty impressed.  “Those are the basics.  I’ve heard from others that it takes deep breaths, that it’s not just muscle.  So I practiced that, mostly I got mad and hit something but I eventually got it.”

“Heh, sounds like a lot of work.”  Shiro said, Keith shrugs.

“Yeah, not a lot of patience when you’re six.  That’s what my Dad said to me.”  Keith said calmly as he walked towards Black.  That made Shiro stop.

“Six?!  As in six years old?!”

“Yeah I started copying people when I was six, my Dad had to always get me away from others so no one would see.  When I was eight I had fire pretty much down.  I’m sure there’s a lot I still don’t know but I’m confident that I’ve mastered the basics.”

“W-What have you mastered?”

“Well the basics, I’ve also learned that a circular motion can generate power… also fire streams, jabs, whips, pretty much everything.  Just not perfected.”  Keith says.  “You can learn alot by just watching.”  Keith says.  “My masters were all people who didn’t know my name.”

“So… you kind of got it yourself?”

“At first yeah, I did.”  Keith nods with a smile.  “Isn’t that how you did it?”  He asks while handing Black some apples.  Shiro shook his head.

“No, what you’re telling me has to be a lie.”  He said, Keith pouts and gave Shiro a look.

“Why would I lie?  What would I gain from that?”  He asks.  Putting a few apples away he walks over to him and sat next to Shiro.  The older man shrugs.

“I don’t know, I just… I had to learn from a master.  Like everyone else.”

“So…”  Keith grabs his legs and rolls on his back, staring at Shiro, he had to admit Keith had a childish side that was rather cute to watch.  He was curious like one as well.

“So I learned from a master, nothing more to that.  You learned by watching people.”

“Yeah but I never had a master.”  Keith said.  Shiro was very confused, Keith wasn’t that old right?  He was young and a gifted bender who knew nothing about the world around him.  Kind of an odd kid.  “Well you’re probably going to be leaving soon so I should get out of your hair.”

“Wait-”  Shiro stops him.  Keith looks over and gave a confused look.  “I’m not leaving yet, I would like some company.”

“Really?”  Keith asks with a smile.  He agrees to stay and hang out with Shiro, not knowing how long he was actually going to stay.  It ended up being two days and he was still there talking to Keith and hanging out with him.

Keith has never had a friend before, this is the first one and it feels amazing.  Why didn’t he talk to people earlier?  Human interaction is nice, once you stop being so awkward around them.  And Shiro was so kind and accepting, Keith loved it.  He loved having a friend.

“See I drew you.”  Keith was sitting in front of Black and showing him his drawing.  “Do you like it?”  Black makes a low noise, Keith smiles.  “I really got you down, didn’t I?”  He asks.  Black just blinks at him, Keith hugs the fluffy bison.  Shiro walks over and looks at the book, looking through all the drawings.

“So you’re an artist?”

“Yeah.  Not very good, but I enjoy it.”  Keith says, Shiro hands it back.

“Not good?  That’s talent right there.  You should become an artist.”  He says, Keith shook his head.

“I’m not the best at showing off.  I’m more of a “I’ll stay here where no one sees me” type of person.”  He says while putting his book back in his bag.

“Not one for being the center of attention?  Maybe you should make some more friends other than me.  I know I’m probably the only person you talk to and I am not even from here.”

“The less people know about me, the better.”  Keith said, that made Shiro laugh a bit.  He puts a hand on his hip and stares at Keith.

“It’s not like the whole world will know you Keith.  Just a few friends.”  Shiro said.  Keith looks down and messes with his bangs.

“I don’t know…”  He looks up at Shiro, wanting to break the awkward atmosphere.  “Hey I’m gonna go get something real quick!  Wait here, I’ll be back.”  Like an excited child, Keith runs off into the city.  Shiro leaned against Black and messed with an apple.

Sneaking around the corner were a few figures with awful intentions.

* * *

“I’m back- huh?”  Keith stops and stares at the scene going on around him.  He drops the bags he was carrying and watches as the shopkeepers pinned Shiro down.  They all looked at Keith and growled.

“Finally, after nine years!  We’ve got you!”  One says, Keith glares at them.  Hurting his only friend and Shiro couldn’t fight them off.  Keith should be wondering why Shiro wasn’t fighting them but that wasn’t on his mind at the moment.

He took his stance and began to shoot streams of fire at the shopkeepers.  One stood in front and stopped the attack.  Shit, they brought a firebender to help out.  He attacks Keith, who blocked as well and ran towards Black as others attacked with rocks and or were trying to catch him.   Black was being held down by a few other men, he was still tired and exhausted and these men weren’t helping.  He grabs Shiro’s staff and held it out like a weapon.

He had no idea what he was going to do with it, but hopefully he looks intimidating.

“Leave my friend alone!”  He snaps.  Shiro looks at him with a questioning look, what was he gonna do?  Stab someone with the staff?  In all honesty if Keith manages to stab someone with the staff Shiro is going to be very impressed.  Someone bends fire at Keith, while stumbling back one man grabs Keith by the staff and throws him across the ground.

They laughed and pulled on Shiro while putting a blade to his throat, demanding to know where there goods were.  Keith felt something snap in him.  He slowly got up, the men stared at him then mocked him.

“You just don’t know when to give up, do you Keith.”  One said.  Keith quickly looks at them with a pissed off look, one thing was different about him.  His eyes, they were white and glowing.  Everyone felt the same fear at that moment.

Keith held the staff and like what Shiro did the first day he revealed to be a bender Keith sent an air blast at them.  While they all stood back and blocked the debris that the attacked caused Keith to jump and create an air bomb.  Shiro freaked out and got out of the men’s grip and onto Black.

He flies up and waits for the bomb to go off and die down.  In short the men lay unconscious, at least Shiro hopes their unconscious. He flies down and sees Keith float down, then pass out.  Shiro runs to him and puts him on Black as well as the bag he was carrying.

* * *

Keith wakes up to find that he was in a small tent in a wooded area.  He looks around very confused.

“You’re awake now.”  Shiro’s voice came from the opening of the tent.  “Got a little worried there.”

“What happened?”  Keith asks while holding his head.  Shiro gave him a look, must be a face he makes a lot cause Keith is now getting use to that face.

“You don’t remember?”

“No I do, and that’s the problem… it seems surreal.  Like a dream.”

“Well it was reality my friend.  You… I can’t even believe what I just saw.”  He says.  “Keith…how old are you?”

“Why is that important?”  Keith asks.  Shiro said nothing, Keith sighs and held his knees as he spoke.  “I’m eighteen years old.”

“Eighteen years ago the Avatar died and the war continued with no signs of the other nations winning.”

“So?!  What does that have to do with anything?!”  Keith snaps.  He crawls closer in frustration and fear.  He was scared, he had no idea what he just did.  “What happened to me?!  What does my age or this stupid war I know nothing about have to do with what happened back there?!”  Keith felt like crying, he was freaking out.

“Keith… it adds up.”

“What adds up?!  You aren’t making any sense!  What’s wrong with me?!”

“The last Avatar was from the Earth Kingdom.  Following the cycle, the next Avatar would be…”  Shiro’s eyes slowly lead to Keith.

“Would be what?!”

“A firebender.”  He says.  “A firebender born exactly eighteen years ago.”  Keith sat there motionless.  Everything began to add up, all at once.  Crashing down with no mercy.

“No…”  The world has found their new Avatar.


	2. Run Aways

Keith didn’t know where he was running, he was just running.  Hearing the news scared him, made him uneasy, made him realize how important he was.  He’s not important, not to him anyways.

He felt an arm grab him and pull him back, two strong arms wrap around him and held him in place.  He fought against it, wanted to keep running, wanted to escape.  He didn’t want to be here anymore, he didn’t want to be alive.  He’d rather die than be the Avatar.

“Keith, calm down.”  Shiro’s calming voice filled Keith’s ears.  Didn’t do much, he kept fighting against Shiro’s strong grasp.  How can someone be so strong?

“Let me go Shiro!”  He shouts, Shiro didn’t let go.  “I refuse to be the Avatar, I refuse to believe that!  It’s a lie!  It’s all a lie!”

“Keith-”

“Why would a lousy orphan like me be the Avatar?  It makes no sense!”  He shouts.  “I don’t want to be the Avatar!”

“I’m sorry Keith, but you don’t get a choice.”  Shiro says.

“No I don’t want it!  I don’t want to be the Avatar Shiro!  That’s not fair!  I want a say!”

“Keith you were born the Avatar, no one can change that.”

“I want a say!  It’s my life, I should have a say dammit!  I want a choice!”  Keith was starting to cry.  “This isn’t fair… it’s not fair.”

“Shhh.  It’s okay.”  Shiro sat on the ground bringing Keith down with him.  He held Keith close as he whimpers.  “I’m sorry, I know it’s not fair.  I can’t control it, no one can.”  After what felt like hours Keith calmed down and looks at Shiro with fear and uncertainty in his eyes.

“I’m scared Shiro.”  He admits.  “I’m so scared.  I never thought about this, about my life much.”  He curls up and looks at the ground.  “What do I do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Run and hide.”  Keith answered honestly.  “Hide and never be seen again.  I want what you just told me to be a lie.  I want my identity to be a lie, I want… I want to be a normal firebender again.”

“That’s a wish I cannot grant nor can it happen.”  Shiro says bluntly.  “Keith whether you want to or not doesn’t matter.  You’re the Avatar, the only one who can stop all of this.  Who can end the war and bring back peace.”

“I don’t understand any of this!”  Keith shouts back.  “I’ve lived in the Fire Nation all my life and I’ve never heard of this so called “war”.”  He snaps.  “If you have no proof then I will not turn against my own Nation.  That’s me turning against my home!”

“Keith I’m telling you the truth!”  Shiro argued back.  “This war has been going on way before you and I were even born, we weren’t even a thought!”  He shouts, that made Keith flinch.  Suddenly Shiro’s face softened.  “Besides, what would I gain lying to you?”  He made a good point.  Shiro had no reason to lie.

But that didn’t mean Keith was going to believe him.  He is not going to suddenly go with whatever Shiro said.

“What are we going to do now?”  

“Well I think the best thing for all of us is to get out of the Fire Nation before something bad happens to you.”  Shiro says while getting on Black.

“Why?  Will something bad happen to me?”

“Those people from the market will probably tell the guards about you and get you killed.”  He said while sitting on top the bison’s head.  Keith climbs on and stares at Shiro.

“So we run away?”

“Run and hide, like you want.”

“Somewhat.”  Keith smiles, Shiro returns it and grabs the reigns.  With a yip yip the two flew off.

* * *

“Where are we gonna stop?”  Keith asks, Shiro shrugs and kept flying.  Keith pulls the map out and stares at it.  “I wanna go here!”

“Why?”

“I wanna go see the Earth Kingdom.”  Keith says with innocence.  “Since we’re on the run, it might be nice to stop and sight see a bit.”

“This isn’t a nice vacation Keith, we’re on the run for our lives.  Mainly yours.”  Shiro says.  “Also people are gonna hate you because you’re from the Fire Nation.  Where the heck would we go in the Earth Kingdom that’s safe?”

“We won’t know unless we try.”  Keith points out, Shiro sighs and grabs Black’s reigns.

“Alright, Earth Kingdom here we come.”  He says.  Keith looks down and stares at the water they were flying over.  He felt the wind in his fingers, he closed his eyes and made a circular motion.

Shiro looks at him and his eyes grew slightly.

“You’ve made an airball…”

“Huh?”  Keith looks at what he made.  He smiles brightly and plays with the ball.  “Oh my God… this is so cool!”  He says in excitement.  “Shiro this is amazing!”

“Yeah it is.”  Shiro says as they flew around.  Keith kept throwing the ball around and did a little trick.  It disappeared in thin air, Keith stares at the empty space in his hands.  Keith tried again, Shiro made one and threw it at Keith.  It knocked him off Black into the water, Shiro covered his mouth and laughed.

Keith swims to the surface and glares at Shiro.  He flies down with Black and floats on the water.  Shiro points and laughs and at Keith.  Keith climbs up and spits water in Shiro’s face.  Shiro pouts and wipes his face dry.

“Come on I didn’t mean to knock you off.”

“Liar.”  Keith finds a blanket in Shiro’s things and wraps up.  He decided not trying airbending when Shiro was flying.

* * *

They stopped at the edge of the Fire Nation and rested up before leaving.  Keith made an airball again and played with it happily.  Shiro saw that and ran up and kicked it away, Keith saw that and felt betrayed.

“Why?  Why would you do that?!”

“Cause why not?”  Shiro says, Keith pouts and kicks the ground.

“Evil.  You shouldn’t be allowed to airbend.”

“Wow, so much wrong in one sentence.”  Shiro says.  “One: all Air Nomads can airbend.  Two: You’re from the Fire Nation, you shouldn’t be allowed to airbend.”  He pushes Keith’s forehead with one finger.  Keith kept pouting while making another airball.

“I do what I want.”

“You’re a child.  But then again, so am I.”  Shiro made an airscooter and rode around, Keith saw that and points.

“I wanna do that!”

“You can, no one’s stopping you.”  Shiro got off.  He showed Keith how he made it and rode off again, Keith tried but he could only make an airball.

“Oh that’s not fair.  You look like you’re having fun.”

“I am having fun, mainly because I know you can’t do this.”  He says with a playful smile, Keith stares him down then began to firebend, sending whips and other attacks at Shiro.  He freaked out and ran from the flames, Keith did not let up.  Shiro kept using air to defend himself as well as running for his life.

He took out his staff and ran up the side of a rather large rock.  He hops off and uses the staff as a flying tool and flew around.  Keith saw that and snaps.

“Oh come on!”  He shot fire at Shiro who was dodging the flames rather easily.  Keith kept shooting flames, soon enough he realized that wasn’t working.  He created two fire whips out of pure frustration, Shiro freaked out and ran into another rock and falls off.  He got up and looks at Keith.

“Crazy Avatar.”

“Ha, I’m winning now!”

“Oh in your dreams.”  Shiro got up and sent an airblast at Keith before running away again, and due to him being an airbender it makes him faster.  Keith chuckles and tried to trip Shiro up with firebending.  Wasn’t working well.

Shiro ran at Keith and was going to try and punch him, playfully of course.  Keith saw him coming and propelled himself off the ground using airbending.  Shiro watched him flip in the air and sent another shot of fire at Shiro.  He got hit on the shoulder and fell over.

Keith lands and points and laughs while dancing around.

“I got you!  I win, I win!”

“Ow…”  Shiro got up and let the younger boy laugh.  “Yeah yeah you won, rub it in.”  He saw he wasn’t burnt so Keith held back quite a bit.  He smiles and watches Keith dance around in victory.  He wonders if Keith has ever done this, played around with others.  Maybe he was deprived of it as a child, thinking of that made Shiro feel sorry for Keith.

“What do I win?”  That got Shiro out of his thoughts.

“The satisfaction of knowing you beat me by using two forms of bending like a cheater.”  He said with a chuckle, Keith smiles and sat next to Shiro, holding himself under his legs again.  He balanced himself on his butt then fell on his back with an umph.  Shiro watched him and laughed.  “You okay?”

Keith just smiles and stares up at Shiro with bright purple eyes that shone like gems.  Shiro ruffles Keith’s bangs and kept staring at the blue sky.

“That was a good work-out, tired me out.  What about you?”

“I’m little tired.”  Keith said.  “I’m not use to bending the air around me, it feels weird.”  He looks at his legs and kicks them a bit, feeling the air go through them.

“So you fully accept your role as the Avatar?”  Shiro asks with a smile.  Keith looks around, thinking about the right words to say.

“I don’t know.  Maybe, I guess.”  Keith didn’t know, he didn’t know if he believed in this “war” and if he could make any sort of difference or impact.  He’s still in that mindset that he’s a nobody and no one would ever care about him.  Also the crushing reality that many many people would count on him.  He never wanted that.

“No pressure, but you are blessed Keith.”  Shiro starts.  “Not everyone can say they’re the Avatar.”

“And not everyone wants to be the Avatar.”  Keith said.  “It’s still so surprising to me.  Like this is some sort of dream and I can’t wake up.  It’s odd.”  The way Keith described what he was feeling made Shiro confused.  Most stories he’s heard about the Avatar were about how powerful and amazing they were, Keith makes it sound like it’s this confusing mess that no one wants to be involved in.  Nothing like what he’s heard before.

Maybe it was after they mastered everything.  They were living a peaceful life and everything just worked for them.  Maybe then they were happy, but before that… did they feel the same way Keith does?  Did they feel confused?  Scared?  Maybe even cheated out of a normal life?

Keith kept kicking in the air like nothing was bothering him at the moment.  Shiro leans back and kept staring at the sky, trying to think of what to say to Keith to make him feel more comfortable with his situation.  But nothing sounded right.  Keith felt like the spirits were hurting him and playing a trick on him.  How the hell is Shiro suppose to make Keith feel any better about this?

“I guess you can say I’m starting to feel more comfortable about it.”  Keith suddenly said.  Shiro quickly looks at him in surprise.  He said nothing else, just kept kicked his legs around.  Shiro sighs and leans against a rock and rests for a little longer.  After all those two were in for a long journey and he’ll take all the rest he can get.

* * *

“Is what you’re saying true?”  A Fire Nation guard asks.  The few shopkeepers were bowing and nodding.

“It’s true, we’ve discovered the new Avatar!  He’s an orphan who knows how to firebend, we all saw him airbend before our very eyes!”  One says, the guard rolls his eyes and walks off not believing the crazy shopkeepers stories.  “Wait come back!  We’re telling the truth, we swear!”  They plea.

“What is going on here?”  A woman’s voice calls, the guard stops and suddenly bows to the voice.  A woman dressed in a red robe lined with gold and a golden headpiece shaped like small flames to hold up her top knot while the rest of her hair falls down her back.  Despite wearing their clothes she didn’t look like she belonged in the Fire Nation at all.

“Fair Lady Honerva.”  The guard says.  “What brings you here?”

“I heard someone say the Avatar, is this true?”  She asks the shopkeepers.  They bow in the sight of their queen.

“Yes Milady!  We saw the Avatar with our own eyes!”

“Where is he now?”  She asks in a cold tone.  The shopkeepers kept bowing, not once looking up at her.

“H-He’s with an Air Nomad right now, he up and took him away.  We have no idea where he went!”  They squeaked, Honerva’s eyes narrowed and she turned away.

“Keep talking to them Sendak, I am going to speak with our lord.”

“Yes Milady.”  Sendak bows before her again and watches her leave.  Honerva walks back into the throne room where the Fire Lord was sitting calmly.  Pale as the moon, dark hair, and deep brown eyes that made anyone’s blood run cold.

“Lord Zarkon.”  Honerva bows before her husband.  He stares her down and lifts his hand up, gesturing her to stand.

“Do not bow to me my love.”  He tells her calmly.  “You seem to have news for me, say it.”  He says it like a command.  She nods and tells him about the shopkeepers inside.  Without another word he shouts to his other guards to send them in.

Honerva walks up to her side of the throne and sits next to Zarkon.  The men walk in with guards all around them.  They bow at Zarkon’s feet and worship him like he was a god of some sort.

“What do you know?”  He asks in a deep voice.  The shopkeeper’s tremble at his voice but start to speak.

“W-W-We’ve found the A-Avatar Lord Zarkon….”  One stutters.  Zarkon’s eyes narrow and glare.

“Who is it?  Where are they now?”

“Uh that’s the thing… we don’t know where he went.”  That got Zarkon to stand up and blast fire at the men sitting there.  They scream and back away from the Fire Lord’s anger fueled flames.

“Where did he go?”

“He went off with an Air Nomad!  We don’t know!”  They whimpered in fear.  Zarkon kept standing and glaring at them.  Honerva stood next to Zarkon, the height difference between the two was a sight to see, and spoke up.

“Who is the boy?  What’s his name?”

“His name is Keith, he’s just some dirty orphan.”  One says, Honerva stares the man down, her hazel eyes worse than ice.

“That orphan is the most powerful person in existence and you just let him get away.  Am I hearing that right?”

“Well you don’t understand Fair Lady… h-he airbended at us and we were all so shocked.  Not to mention it seemed like he knew advanced airbending moves.  You know as well as I do what it’s like to be a non bender fighting a bender.  We stand no chance, then the next thing you know the Avatar shows up and about kills us.”  He said.  Honerva says nothing, she looks up at her husband knowing what he was gonna do.

He sends another fireblast at them to scare them more.

“He must be brought back to the Fire Nation to serve under us!  I will not let some Air Nomad use him against me.  Sendak gather a few men and go after this Avatar, bring him back alive.”  Sendak bows before the Fire Lord and nods.  Honerva spoke up again.

“As for help… get in contact with Lotor.  Our son may prove himself useful in the search for the Avatar.”  She says.  “No one will rest till he’s brought back to us, then victory will be ours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so hard to write cause I didn't know what to add. I don't want to rush this story but this is painfully slow... don't worry though, next chapter will be way more exciting.


	3. Marmora Warriors

A small ship with a few guards roaming around the Fire Nation, sailing the seas and picking up random soldiers to help on the ship.  A girl with short black hair followed by another one with long black hair tipped red in a high ponytail walks out and greets the captain.

“Prince Lotor, we’ve received a message from your father from another soldier.”  The short hair girl spoke up.  “Apparently he wants your help… in finding the Avatar.”  That got Lotor to turn around.

He looked way more like his mother than anyone else, but that look in his eyes and you could see the death and wickedness they possessed.  Like father like son.

“So that old man wants my help now?  After banishing me out to sea?”  He asks in a calm voice, the girl with the ponytail spoke up.

“This is big sire.  If you manage to capture the Avatar alive, you may get to go back home!”  That was music to his ears.  He smiles at his two girls and nods.

“Well being unbanished and off this crummy boat would be nice.  Also getting my honor back… Acxa, Ezor.  Go tell Zethrid and Narti our new mission.  Finding the Avatar.”

“But he’s running around with an Air Nomad they say.  Won’t it be hard to find him?”

“Possibly, the Air Nomad will be tough to track down.  They’ll most likely find a place in the Earth Kingdom to hide.”  Lotor looks out.  “I am sure the challenge of hunting them down will be worth it though.  I don’t care how good the Air Nomads directions are… I will find them and bring the Avatar back to my father.”

* * *

“What do you mean we’re lost?!”  Keith asks Shiro in annoyance.  Shiro scratches his head and looks at the map.

“Okay you know what?  I suck at directions.  I can never tell where we’re going.”  Shiro says calmly despite Keith’s yelling.  The young Avatar sat down and pouts while Shiro looks at the map.  He sighs, he had no clue where they were.  They were hopelessly lost.

“All I see is water.”  Keith says.  “Water, water, water… as far as the eye can see.”  He lays back and watches the clouds go by.  Shiro leans forward onto the saddle of Black and stares at Keith.  He says nothing, he knew if he spoke up he’d make it worse.  Keith was pissed off.

The two just sat there flying around with not a care in the world, besides something to eat.  Keith digs in his pouch and pulls out a berry.  Shiro looks over and held his hand out, wanting some food.  Keith digs in his bag and pulls out a sausage.  He puts it in Shiro’s hand, he stares at the sausage with a confused look and hands it back to Keith without saying a word.

Keith didn’t understand why Shiro didn’t want it so he puts it back and pulls out a berry.  He gives it to Shiro who popped it in his mouth without a second thought.  Keith didn’t bother asking what all that was about, he just watched the clouds roll by.

Hours go by and Keith looks over the side and gasps.  He grabs Shiro by the shoulders and points in excitement.

“Shiro!  Shiro!”  He shouts, Shiro jumps and looks over at his friend.

“What?!  What’s so important that you had to scare me?!”  Keith has gone completely crazy.  He points at the landmass to the left of them.

“Land!  Land!  We can stop there!”  Keith was too excited, he jumped off Black and into the water.  Shiro flat out panicked.

“KEITH!”  He looks over the side and saw Keith swimming around happily, he sees Shiro looking at him and he points to the landmass again.  “I see that Keith but did you have to jump off of Black?!”

“I’m happy.”  Keith floats on his back and relaxes.  Shiro lets Black float on the water next to Keith and lets him up.  Keith swims over and climbs back on the bison.  He pats Black’s side and smiles.  “Good bison.”

Shiro laughs at that random moment and flies towards the landmass in front of them.

* * *

The random landmass was actually an island separated from the Earth Kingdom.  Black lands and shook himself dry, getting both boys wet, or at least in Shiro’s case.  Shiro fed Black a few apples and pets the bison’s head, he leans against his owner happily.  Keith looks around at the landscape trying to get a read on the area.

He sees a few trees and a bridge, but besides that?  It was a boring place.

“Do you think anyone lives here?”  Keith asks, Shiro looks over and shrugs.

“Maybe, I wouldn’t know.”  He grabs Black’s reigns and leads the bison towards Keith.  “We could look for someone.”  He says, Keith nods and the two walk deeper in the island.  All seemed normal and deserted.  Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Then in a flash of a second, a knife comes out of nowhere, stabbing the ground in front of Keith.  Both boys jump back.  One grabs his staff in a defensive position while Keith was ready to attack.

A couple of people hop down from the trees, the bushes, and from under cliffs, they wore dark greens and some black to hide the lower halves of their faces.  Without warning they attack the two.  Keith bends fire at the attackers, while Shiro airbends the blades away.  One large man runs at Keith with great speed.  Keith went under him, the blade only getting a few of his hairs and burns the man’s legs.  He shouts in pain and turned to knock Keith in the face with his elbow.

Shiro kept airbending the men and weapons away.  He blew a few men away from him, one guy that got blown away knocked into Keith.  He glares at Shiro.

“WATCH IT!”

“I don’t control where they fly.”  He says calmly.  Keith grumbles, then immediately was back fighting the big guy.  Burning him seemed to make it worse, the man could take the burns.  Keith growls and elbows the man hard in his gut, then as he stumbles back Keith blows the man off his feet with a powerful airblast.

All the men stopped as soon as they saw that.  They looked over at him in awe, the fighting ceased and they bowed before Keith.  No words were spoken, which didn’t help cause Keith was beyond confused at the moment.  They tried to kill him and his friends, now they’re bowing… can someone please explain what is going on and why the hell these men are bowing?

“I cannot believe it…”  The big man spoke up, staring at Keith with wide eyes.  He quickly got down on a knee and bows before Keith.  “It’s been eighteen years.  You’ve finally returned to us, Master Trigel.”  Silence fell between them, Shiro was standing on the side while everyone circled Keith and bowed.  One man knocked Shiro down, forcing him to bow before his friend.

Keith stood there motionless, finally he spoke up.

“What?”

* * *

“I am Kolivan, leader of the Marmora Warriors.”  The big man says to Shiro and Keith.  The people lead the two to their “town” or “hideout”.  Whatever these people call it.

Kolivan, as well as the other members, took off their outfits and were dressed normally.  While wearing normal Earth Kingdom attire, Kolivan was without a doubt from the Fire Nation, as well as most of the Marmora’s.  Some were from other places, like the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom.  All non-benders, but not helpless.  They proved that for sure.

“Can you explain what this place is?”  Shiro asks while Keith watched the people outside who were trying to act casual, walking by to catch a glimpse of Keith.

“Of course.  Our Master, the last Avatar, made this place for warriors to hideout and train.  We named it Marmora and called ourselves the Marmora Warriors.  I took on as the leader after my Master’s death eighteen years ago.”  He looks over at Keith.  “I’m glad to see you have returned to us.”

“Uh… yeah.”  Keith nods, very awkward.  Kolivan nods and stares Keith down with dark yellow eyes.

“You have yet to master the other elements, don’t you?”  He asks, his black braid falls off his shoulders.  Keith wonders why the heck this guy wraps his braid around his neck, but he keeps that comment to himself.

Shiro spoke up for Keith’s sake.

“Yes, we discovered he was the Avatar not too long ago.”  He says, Keith didn’t look at Kolivan.  He didn’t want to tell this man he wasn’t interested in being the Avatar.  Keith slowly looks outside and saw people staring again.

“Don’t mind them.”  He says.  “They’re just excited to finally see you again.  For some, this is the first time they’ve ever seen you.”  Keith kept looking back at them, most of them walked away acting like they weren’t staring.  Others just kept staring, no shame in the world, though it’s creepy and awkward as all hell.

“Can they not stare at me?”  Keith asks in a cold and shy tone.  Kolivan looks out and stares at the few who were waiting outside.

“Give the Avatar some space!”  His voice loud and commanding.  The members all scurried away, giving Keith the space he really wants.  “I am sorry if you are uncomfortable.  Again we are very excited to see you again.”

Keith crawls towards Shiro and sits with him.  He was so freaked out cause people are staring at him.  Some of them came back, so basically they didn’t listen to Kolivan at all.

“Again, they are just excited.”  So no way are they gonna stop staring at him, as long as he’s here he’ll have to deal with it.  And it’s not like they’ll be staying for long.

“Say we’re trying to rest up before we head out.  Is it okay if we stay here for a while?”  Shiro asks, Keith was two seconds from killing him.

“Our home is the Avatar’s as well.  We will be honored to serve you both.”

* * *

Keith could not believe he was staying the night at the Marmora’s base, or home, island, whatever you call this place.  They all kept staring at him whenever he went out and about, finally he decided to hide out in the home Kolivan provided.  He saw they had a spring outside of the base, Keith looked at himself.  He hadn’t had a decent bath since he started traveling, and hasn’t had a nice bath in years.

He grabs a towel and walks towards the bath right outside his home he and Shiro were staying in.  Shiro was out with Black and Kolivan so he had the privacy he wanted.  Stripping off all his clothes and taking his hair out of his now messy ponytail he walks into the warm spring.

He smiles, it’s been way too long.  It felt nice, he slouches and closed his eyes, feeling some sort of relief.  He found what they use to clean themselves with, nothing like the Fire Nation but Keith wasn’t complaining.  After a half an hour of peace he heard rustling in the trees.  Keith opens his eyes.

He sees some trees near him rustling.  Keith snaps, he sent an airblast at the trees, a few young Marmorains fell out, about five of them.  They all look at him in fear, they got caught red handed.  Keith’s face turned red, in both anger and embarrassment.  He was taking a bath for fucks sake.

“Are you serious?!”  He snaps.  He quickly got out and wraps a towel around his waist.  Storming into his home and found his clothes.  He dried off and grabbed his undergarments and brown shorts, only to see a few others watching him change.  Keith shrieks, in a panic he airbends away from the eyes of all the Marmorains.

Shiro heard the shriek and walks back to the home.  Keith had up and abandoned his shirt and shoes.  He looks around and sees a few Marmorians looking for him as well.  So that’s what happened.  So now if he were Keith, where would he hide?  Somehow Shiro had an idea.

He walks through the forest and towards a cliff, a cave was hiding on one side of it.  Tricky to get to if you weren’t an airbender.  Shiro glides himself towards it and saw a pouty Keith sitting on the ground, hugging his knees.

“I thought I’d find you around here.”  He says, Keith looks up at him then back at the ground.  He was shivering due to the cold of the cave and he was only wearing pants.  Shiro walks up and sat next to him.  Keith still said nothing.

Shiro knew why Keith ran like that, he wasn’t use to people acknowledging him.  Now they’re watching him like an animal, and praising him like a god.  He grabs Keith’s shoulders and tries to comfort him.

“I think you should go back and get changed, and maybe rest.”

“No.”  Keith says.  “They all keep staring at me.”  He leans against Shiro trying to stay warm, also it’s another body comforting him.  Keith doesn’t seem like the one for hugs, and he’ll never admit it, but he loves them.

“I’m sure they’ll stop after a bit.”

“They saw me naked.”  Keith snaps.  “That’s the last straw!  I draw the line at seeing me completely exposed!”

“Okay you got me there.”  Shiro says.  He sat with Keith for a few minutes before suggesting they go back.  “Come on, this is the first night in a while where we can sleep with a roof over our heads.”  That got Keith to slowly look up and nod.  Shiro had a point, might as well take advantage of this.

They got out of the cave and relaxed in the home Kolivan provided.  Shiro closed the blinds so Keith could feel a little more comfortable.  He cooked noodles and rice, Keith had to complain due to the lack of meat.  Shiro had to explain that Air Nomads don’t eat meat, to which Keith replied to that by calling bullshit cause Shiro is built like a tank.  

Kolivan comes in that night and decided to join them for dinner.  Both boys let him, since he was the one who allowed them to stay.  He looks at Keith and began to ask questions.

“So when are you going to learn the other elements?”  He asks, Keith stops.  His chopsticks in the air close to his mouth.  He puts his food down and cleared his throat.

“Um… w-why do you ask?”  He asks.

“Well if we want this war to end, we’ll need your help.”  Kolivan said.  “We’ve waited eighteen years for the new Avatar to come in and save us.”  Keith just sat there listening to this man talk with hope in his voice.  “Remember this, if you ever need help, the Marmora Warriors will be there to help you.  To the bitter end.”  With that Kolivan left.

Keith sat there in complete silence, staring at his food.  Shiro said nothing, he ate in silence.  He felt bad for Keith, how is he going to tell Kolivan the truth?  Tell anyone the truth?  That he doesn’t believe in this war, and that he refused to be the Avatar.

* * *

“We’ll be landing here shortly.”  Axca tells her fellow generals.  Ezor leans against the table and pouts.

“Why are we stopping there?”  She asks.  “The last time anyone went there was to find the last Avatar.  Since then that place has been abandoned.”  She points out.

“Which is why Lotor is suspicious.”  Zethrid tells her pouting friend.  Axca nods at her and points at the spot.

“When it comes to finding the Avatar, no place is truly abandoned.  Now get ready for landing.”

* * *

Screams filled the morning air.  Shiro, who woke up much earlier, groans and watches his home.  He saw Keith run out while Marmora members poked their heads out of the home.  Shiro wanted to know how they managed to sneak in there without someone spotting them.  Kolivan saw Keith running and had to ask what happened.

“Kolivan you should tell your members to leave Keith alone.”  He says.  “He isn’t use to human interaction, and I think your people are freaking him out.”  The two watch Keith run by again.

He hid in the trees and refused to come out.  Shiro couldn’t even convince him to come out.  Keith waited, wanting to leave this island as soon as possible.  He hates these people, and he hates having no privacy.  He wants to leave as soon as possible.

* * *

Shiro went out to look for Keith, who was getting way better at hiding.  It was getting tiring of looking at all the trees trying to spot a sliver of red or black, so far nothing.

“Keith come on out!  It’s just me.  I’ll prove it.”  Shiro sent an airblast at the path behind him.  Nobody was there.  “See?  You can come out now.”  Keith lands right next to Shiro, scaring the poor guy out of his skin.

Keith said nothing, he only pouts and glares.

“Well glad to see you Mr. Sunshine.”  He comments at the pouty teen.

“When are we leaving?”

“What?”

“When are we leaving this place?!”  Keith asks.  “I can’t stay here!  They stalk me to no end!  I haven’t gotten a single moment to myself since we got here!  Not to mention how much hope they have for me!”  He shouts.

“How-”  He continues.  “How am I suppose to tell these people that I refuse to believe in this war?”  He asks, Shiro shrugs.  He didn’t know, he knew about the war and wanted Keith to stop lying.  Somewhere deep inside Keith believed that there is a war, but he can’t bring himself to admit it.  He wants to believe it’s a lie.

Keith might need an eye opener.

“Let’s go back and tell Kolivan we’re leaving.”  Shiro said.

“Do you want to leave?”  Keith asks.

“Not yet, I want to rest a bit longer.  But we’re a team Keith, and you’ve put up with a lot since we got here.  I don’t mind leaving if you’re ready.”  That got Keith to smile.  What did he do to deserve a friend like Shiro.

“Yeah!”  Then a loud crash came from the base.  The two froze and looked back at each other.  With a shared nod they ran to the hideout.

* * *

“Now now~”  Ezor’s playful voice shouts.  “We won’t hurt you if you tell us where the Avatar is.”  The other girls walk out.  “Stay silent?  Well, we’ll kill you.  It isn’t hard to figure out.”  Zethrid created fire with her big hands, Acxa held out a weapon of some sort, and Narti just stood there silently.

“So what’s it gonna be?”  Ezor asks creating blue fire.  “We haven’t got all day?”  The Marmorians got out their weapons and got ready to fight.  The girls knew the answer, they about started when a gust of air came at them, knocking two of the four girls down.

Acxa and Ezor stood and stared at the airbender who caused that.  Shiro walks out and pointed his staff at them.

“Who are you people?”  He shouts, the girls just stare.  Acxa broke the silence.

“You’re the Air Nomad…”  Then she shouts back.  “Where is the Avatar?  Where are you hiding them?”  Then she was hit on her side with a burning flame.  She held her side and looked over.

“You looking for me?”  He asks with a cocky smirk.  The girls all stared at him, waiting for him to say something.  “Leave this place.  This isn’t a part of the Fire Nation.  Leave these people in peace.”

Silence.

“Yeah no can do.”  Ezor said and shot a fire at a random building.  Keith stood there in shock, she just took a building down without a second thought.  That one action got the Marmorians to attack.  Keith and Shiro joined in.

Acxa and Ezor ganged up on the Avatar, trying to catch him and take him back but Keith was quick enough to stop their attacks.  He knocked Acxa away with an airblast distracting him enough for Ezor to grab him and pin him down.

Keith fought her to get her off, finally he swung his free arm behind him and punched her in the face with an airpunch.  She flew off, Keith got up and was surprised himself.  He didn’t think that would work.

Shiro fought Narti off, she was quick and quiet.  Shiro quickly learned that she was listening for him, she was blind and was skilled at fighting.  Listening for his staff and his bending.  Shiro tried to knock her off her feet, but Narti had enough core strength to keep herself grounded.  She jumps and tried to kick him in the head, Shiro quickly blocks with his staff and pushed her off.  She flipped in the air and landed on her two feet, like a cat.

Zethrid was knocking Marmorians down left and right, except for Kolivan, who was using his strength against hers.  Practically an even match.  Fire meets metal, ugly sounds of metal meeting armor and fire burning skin.

Then someone walks down from the boat.  They all stopped fighting, well the girls did anyways, and looked up at the person walking down.  A young man with tan skin, white hair tied up in a top knot, and fancy armor from the Fire Nation.

He looks around and sees Keith, he froze in his spot.  This man didn’t look intimidating, but something about him made Keith feel… uneasy.

He walks up to Keith and made him look up by putting a finger on his chin.  Keith stared at him, now close enough to see his eyes.  A beautiful shade of blue that made Keith’s heart skip a beat.  The man didn’t seem to notice Keith’s tinted cheeks and spoke.

“So you’re the Avatar.”  He said in a cool voice.  “You’ve only seemed to master two of the elements, not a problem I suppose.”  He says.  “Allow me to introduce myself Avatar, I am Prince Lotor.  A pleasure to meet you face to face.”  Keith said nothing.

“My Father will be pleased to see you.”  He orders Acxa and Ezor to grab both of his arms, he panics, looking at both girls.  “You know that description those merchants gave about you was awfully wrong.  They said you were a dirty orphan… for an orphan you are quite beautiful.”  Keith’s heart shouldn’t be speeding up, he shouldn’t feel excited.  He should be freaking out due to him now being kidnapped against his will.

Without a second thought Shiro attacks, knocking the two girls down again.  With his arms free, Keith runs back to Shiro’s side.  He glares at Lotor, he doesn’t care how attractive he was, he didn’t trust him.

Everyone who could still fight was more than prepared to.  Lotor glares and readied an attack, until he heard someone stop him.  His generals look out with him at the water and saw one of their allies showing up.

“That is enough Lotor.  You’ve done enough damage.”  The voice was low and quite terrifying.  Keith peeks out from behind Shiro and sees a bulky man walk down off his own boat.  “Clearly they won’t give up the Avatar so easily.”

“Stay out of this Sendak!  I can take the Avatar myself-”

“And what?  Get yourself killed?”  He tugs Lotor closer to whisper to him.  “If you mess this up you could let the Avatar slip through your fingers, or worse you could accidentally kill him.  Wait till he’s alone with that Air Nomad, not when he has a small army of his own where you could lose him, you moron.”  His whispers sounded more like hissing.  Lotor’s hand twitched, a few sparks came from his hand.

Keith noticed that, it perked his interest.  It looked like lightning… so can he actually bend that?  While he was lost in his own thoughts Sendak and Lotor took their leave.  As soon as they were gone the two looked around.

People passed out, a burnt down building, and obvious injuries everywhere.  Shiro grabs Keith and points at the scene.

“SEE THIS?!”  He shouts.  “DO YOU SEE THE MESS YOUR NATION CAUSED?!”  Keith backs away and shook his head.

“N-No this… this isn’t-”

“THIS IS WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON LONGER THAN YOU’VE BEEN ALIVE!  THIS IS WAR KEITH!  A WAR YOUR NATION STARTED!”  He kept yelling.  “YOUR LORD KILLED THE LAST AVATAR AND THEIR FAMILY!  DESTROYED VILLAGES, TOOK PEOPLE AS PRISONERS, AND TOOK AWAY MY HOME!  THIS IS THE HELL EVERYONE ELSE HAS WENT THROUGH!”

Keith kept backing away, but no matter how much he backed off Shiro kept coming at him.  He didn’t know what to say, what to feel.  He still didn’t want to believe it, he wanted it to not be true.  Shiro knows this, and knows Keith needs an eye opener.

He grabs the collar of Keith’s shirt and drags him to Black.  Taking him to a place that will open his eyes, make him see what this war has done to so many others.

That night they left the Marmora warriors, promising them that they’d return shortly.  And promising Kolivan that by then, Keith will understand everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun one to write. So in ATLA the team meets a group of people called the Kyoshi warriors, that's the Marmora in this AU. Only difference is is that the Marmora includes all genders, not just female.


	4. Boy in the Snow

Keith said nothing as they flew in the sky.  He could tell Shiro was mad at him, furious that he wasn’t getting it.  Truth be told he got it, he knew that Lotor came in and it was uncalled for.  But is that really the entire Fire Nation?

Keith didn’t know anymore.  Shiro threw something heavy at Keith, a big coat.

“Put that on, you’re gonna need it.  Also there’s better pants in my bag, they might be big but at least you’ll be warm.”  He still sounded unhappy.  Keith slowly puts the coat on and nestles in it.  He was trying so hard not to get on his friend’s bad side, scratch that… he was on his bad side.  This was by far the worst thing Keith has ever felt, what was this feeling called?  Oh yeah… guilt.

Keith hates it, he has never felt like this before and it’s driving him nuts.  He wants it to go away, shoo pesky emotion.  That wasn’t working, nor will it ever work.

* * *

Keith woke up when something soft and cold hits his face.  He opens his eyes and looks around, white stars fell from the sky.  Keith’s eyes grow in size, he’s never seen anything like this.

He touches one then backs away, it’s freezing.  But he actually likes it, it’s new and different.

“I take it you’ve never seen snow before.”  Shiro says while still flying with Black.  Keith smiles and looks around.

“It’s beautiful.  They look like stars.”

“Yep.  They kind of do.”  He says.  “Welcome to the Southern Water Tribe, home of the waterbenders.”  They flew lower to the ground.  “I have met a few soldiers from the Southern Tribe.  They can tell you all about the war.”  He tells Keith.

“Really now?”

“Yes, all war stories, even before my time.”  Shiro looks at Keith with a smile.  “Hopefully you’ll understand.  These people have been involved longer than you in-”  Shiro was cut off when they got lower to the ground.  Closer to the only village in the South.  “Oh no.”  He sounded hurt, scared even.  Keith looks over Shiro’s shoulder and gasps, his blood turned cold.

Dead.  About fifty or so men lay dead in the snow, bodies burnt and bleeding out.  Or have bled out.  Some have weapons still impaling their lifeless corpses, making it even more obvious that they’re gone.

The village was destroyed, clothes, toys, boat parts, weapons, everything had been left behind.  Just an empty village in the cold.

They landed and checked every body.  Shiro at least did, Keith pulls on a pair of boots and just hops down.  Looking at everything, or what’s left of it.  It made him sick, made his disgusted.  His home, his Nation did this?  The same blood runs through him, he is one of them.  In anger he took his hair out of its ponytail and threw the metal tie down and steps on it in anger, taking it out on the one thing he still held onto from his Nation.

As the piece was buried in the snow he crouched down and covered his face.  He couldn’t believe this.  This was horrible, this was cruel, this was inhumane… this was war.  How could anyone do this?

“H-Hey… HEY KEITH!”  Shiro shouts.  “I FOUND SOMEONE WHO’S STILL ALIVE!”

“Huh?”  Keith got up and ran towards Shiro.  Shiro cradles the man behind his head and neck.  He was still wearing a mask and had one weapon still around his waist.  Shiro slowly and carefully takes the mask off to reveal a young man under it.  Shiro stares at him in shock.

“This boy… isn’t a soldier.”  He whispers.  Keith looks at Shiro as to say ‘explain what’s going on’ but Shiro didn’t respond.  Instead he picks the boy up bridal styled and carried him back to Black.  “Let’s go Keith, no one else is alive here.”

Looking back at the massacre he nods.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

* * *

The group found a cave to rest in, going deep inside to avoid the cold they rest up and listen to the sounds of a blizzard.  Now they’re stuck but it’s okay, that means they were well hidden from Lotor and his allies.  Problem… they had a nearly dead kid with them and they were low on supplies as is.

They made a bed for the boy and set up a small campsite for them to rest and relax.  Keith used firebending to make a small fire and warm up.  He breathes in his hands and warms himself up.

“Why is it so cold down here?”

“I have no idea.”  Shiro said, he looks at Keith who was now messing with his hair.  Playing with a few locks as it fell on his shoulders.  “What happened to your hairpiece?”  That question made Keith jump.

“Um… I… I must’ve lost it.”  He lied.  Shiro smiles at him.

“I like it down, looks nice.”  He compliments him.  Keith gave him a soft smile and nods.

“Thanks.”  The two said nothing after that.  They sat by the fire and waited for the boy to wake up.  Which was not going to be soon, but it wasn’t like they were leaving anytime soon either.

* * *

Day three, or at least Keith thinks it’s three, honestly he can’t remember.  Everything looks dark to him thanks to the blizzard blocking the exit.  That’s going to be fun to melt.

He helps the fire grow and sat next to it while Shiro was still curled up against Black still asleep.  He walks over to the boy and checks his breathing, better, a lot better.  Hopefully he’ll wake up soon.

He grabs some fruit from the bag and ate it, still waiting for someone besides the bison to be awake.  Well Black is someone to talk to so…

“Hey buddy, what’s up?”  Keith asks, Black made a low noise.  “Alright… good talk.”  How Shiro can have a full conversation with this creature Keith will never know.

An hour passes, Keith was drawing what he thought the snow looked like in his book, till he heard someone waking up.  Whatever it was it made him jump, it wasn’t Shiro, that’s for sure.  Keith looks over at the boy they rescued, he stood up and walks over to him.

He got on his knees and watches as the boy moved a bit.

“H-Hey… you okay?”  Keith asks, trying to see if he was awake.  His eyes fluttered open, a bright cerulean greets him.  Keith held his breath, this boy… was actually very pretty.  Way prettier now that he was awake.  The boy’s eyes opened wide with fear and backs away from Keith.

“STAY BACK!”  He grabs his weapon.  “I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!”  That woke Shiro up.  He got up and ran to Keith’s side.

“What’s going on?!”

“He’s awake.”  Keith was pointing right at the boy, who was holding a boomerang in fear.  Ready to throw at any minute.  He saw Shiro and raised an eyebrow in confusion, he looked like he was from the Fire Nation but dressed like an Air Nomad.

“W-Who are you people?!”  He asks still in fear.

“Calm down, we aren’t here to hurt you.  We came to help.  Can you tell us what’s going on?”  Shiro was trying to be gentle with him, the boy had so many emotions running through his eyes but clear determination on his face.  “Here let me introduce ourselves.”

“I’m Shiro, I’m an Air Nomad from the east.  This is my friend, Keith.  He’s from the Fire Nation, but he is not with them.  Okay?  Keith is here to help you.”

“Why should I trust you?”  The boy asks, Keith had to admit… this kid was smart being wary of everyone.  Shiro was also smart seeing as how he pulls his bag down from Black with a smile.

“You hungry?”  He asks, the boy said nothing.  “I’m gonna make some noodles, seeing as that’s all we have left in here… and some fruit to go with it.  No I am not adding meat, respect my diet Keith.”  Shiro quickly adds on, Keith pouts.

“I’m going to be skin and bones if I keep traveling with you.”  He mumbles.  Shiro used a pot to cook over the fire.  Keith helps it stay alive, Shiro uses the snow to boil water and they all wait for it to cook.

The boy laid back in his bed they made for him and continues to glare at them both, mainly Keith since he was from the Fire Nation.  Keith and Shiro sat on the other side, one leaning against Black, the other staring right at the boy.

“He really doesn’t like me.”

“Cause you’re from the Fire Nation… get use to it.”  Shiro said.  A few minutes pass and Shiro finally serves everyone.  They ate and tried to start a conversation with the boy, they couldn’t get him to talk cause he was stuffing his face.  Nearly dying must have made him hungry.

After stuffing himself Shiro starts trying to talk to him.

“Listen, I want to know what happened here, so you’re going to have to talk to me.”  He tells the boy, he folds his arms and cocks a brow.

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

“I want to know why you were out there?  A normal person passing off as a soldier?  Pretty brave.”  The boy’s face dropped when Shiro said that.  Keith looked at him confused.

“He’s not a soldier?”

“His hair.  It isn’t cut like a soldiers.”  He points out.  “Most men who become soldiers cut it in a wolf’s tail cut.  His isn’t cut like that.”  The boy messes with his hair, feeling embarrassed for getting caught, by an Air Nomad of all people.

“Y-Yeah?  I’m not a soldier… so what?”  He asks, trying to play off as cool and collected, Shiro knew he was breaking down.

“Who are you?  And why did you pass yourself off as a soldier?”  He asks him, the boy sighs and looks down, picking at his coat.

“My name is Lance, youngest child of Hirroli and Vacco.”  He said.

“Lance?  That’s an odd name for someone from the Water Tribe.”  Shiro points out.  Lance nods and kept messing with his coat.  “Can you tell me why you were out there Lance?”

“Yes.”  He nods, sounding sad.  “My eldest brother was going to fight.  He has a wife and two kids of his own.  My father died when I was young, I didn’t want my nephews to go through that.  So I took his place and told him to run with our tribe.  He didn’t agree to it at first, but my sisters convinced him to run.”

“I got injured and must’ve fainted during battle.”  Lance looks up at them.  “Is everyone alright?  Where is everyone anyways?”  He asks, Keith and Shiro look down.

“Lance… you’re the only one we found alive.”  Shiro admits, Lance’s eyes grew wide.  Fear and sadness grew over him.

“N-No that can’t be right!  Someone else had to have lived!  Please, you checked everyone right?  Right?!”  No one said anything, Lance backed away and started to whimper in his knees.  Shiro walks up and tries to calm him down.

“Please don’t cry, your tears will freeze.”

“A-At least tell me if the rest of my people escaped.”  Lance looks at them both, Keith didn’t know the answer to that but maybe lying would help.

“Yes, your people did escape.”  He said, Shiro looked at him with a look that screamed liar.  No one knew if they made it out.  “But we don’t know where they went.”

“Knowing them they sailed to one of the islands on the Earth Kingdom to hideout.  It’s for the best.”  Lance huddles into the blankets again, Keith got closer to Lance and sat in front of him.

“Can you tell me why the Fire Nation attacked you?”  He asked.  Lance raised an eyebrow at him.  “I’m a little behind.  Never learned about the war… so can you tell me?”

“Seriously?”  Lance asks.  “We’re their opposing art.  Waterbending is different from firebending, unless they have a way to counter us they have a hard time defeating water.  We’re a threat to them.”

“Really?”  Keith asks, Lance nods.  Both could tell Lance was extremely uncomfortable around Keith.  Probably still wary of him cause he’s a firebender.  Keith decided to give him some space and start working on the wall of snow that blocked their enterance.  One powerful move and it was all gone.  Lance jumped at Keith’s power, that level of firebending seemed way to strong for one person.

Shiro began to pack up their belongings as well as putting the fire out with an airblast and looks at Lance.

“You can travel with us for a while, we can drop you off whenever you’d like.”

“Really?”  Lance asks.  Both nod as they hop on.  Lance climbs on the bison and curls up, he was still exhausted.  “What does this creature do?  Run?  Swim?”  He asks, Keith smirks at him.

As soon as they got out Keith shouts it.

“Black, yip yip!”  With that they flew high.  Lance screams and clung to Keith in fear.  He started laughing at him.  “You aren’t going to fall.”

“VERY DOUBTFUL!”  He shrieks.  After a few minutes Lance braved it and peeks over the edge, then a small smile appears on his face, Shiro looks over at him and nods.

“Not so bad?”

“No… this is… this is incredible.”  He says.  “What is this thing?”

“This thing is named Black, and he’s a flying bison.”  Shiro says, Lance pets Blacks side happily.  Then looks back at Keith with a weary look.  Should be expected… Lance’s tribe got attacked by the Fire Nation.  Only made sense.

Keith decided to break the tension by cooking a piece of sausage and handing it to Lance, the boy responds by looking at it and glaring at him.  Keith forced a kind smile on his face and spoke softly.

“Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian like Shiro.”  That got Lance to smile a bit.  He took the cooked food from Keith’s hand and ate it.  Soon enough Lance passed out, still weak from being buried in the snow.  Keith covers him up and watches the sky go by with Shiro.

“Where are we gonna take him?”

“I don’t know.”  Shiro looks back.  “If we can’t find his tribe then maybe the Marmorians can take him.  He seems like an able fighter, and a non bender at that.”  He tells Keith.  “It’s up for him to decide, if anything he might want to go to the Northern Water Tribe until his family is back south.”

“Oh…”  Keith looks back at him.  “Do you think he’ll be safe with us?”  Keith asks while shyly touching the blankets that covered Lance up.

“Again he seems like an able fighter.  If not he’ll be safe with us, especially you.”  Shiro said with a laugh.  Keith kept looking down.

“About that…”  He said.  “I want to learn the other elements.”  He admits, that got Shiro to look over in surprise.

“Really?”  Shiro asks.

“Yes.”  Keith nods.  “I want to help stop this war… I am fully accepting my role as the Avatar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith is going to finally master airbending. Yay!


	5. Distrust

The group lands in the Earth Kingdom, Keith immediately rips his coat and pants off to replace it with his normal attire.  He couldn’t believe people live in such a cold place.  Shiro didn’t change and he hops down gracefully.  They heard Lance changing up top and waited for him.

“This is great, oh how I’ve missed the sun~”  Keith says in joy, he closes his eyes and bathes in the sun’s warmth.  Shiro nods and stretches in the sunlight.

“Yeah I like it here way more.”  They heard shuffling on top of Black.  Lance peeks over and yelps.

“How do I get down?”

“Here I’ll help.”  Shiro held his arm out for Lance to grab it.  He reaches over and slowly crawls down.  Keith looks over and it felt like he couldn’t breath.  Mainly because Lance was actually small.  He wore a light blue tunic with a mountain pattern on the bottom, dark blue pants with white ankle boots, and dark blue gloves that held itself together by his middle fingers that don’t even reach his shoulders.  On his right arm was a wave tattoo.

He looks at Keith with one eyebrow raised.

“Problem?”  He asks, Keith’s head was back in reality and he looks down.

“N-No... just… I’ve never seen someone from the Water Tribe before.  Your clothes look different.”  Keith said.  “You don’t see a lot of blue where I’m from.”  Lance said nothing, he only nods and leans against  Black.

“This heat is killing me!  How can someone live here?”  He asks.  Keith pouts and stares him down.

“I can’t see how someone can live in a place that’s so cold.”

“You can warm up easily.  Here I can’t find out how to cool down, this place is making me sweat in places that I didn’t know could sweat.”  Lance complains.  Shiro made a disgusted face and looked around.

“We’ll rest here for a bit then we’ll meet with the Marmorians again, after that we’ll begin your training.”

“Why can’t we start now?”  Keith asks as rests his hands on his hips, he’d rather start his training today.  Lance was confused by what Shiro had just said.  Keith doesn’t look like he needs training, from what he’s seen Keith doesn’t need any training.

The three sat around and ate while talking to one another.

“So who are the Marmorians?”

“Marmorians?”  Shiro asked to see if that’s what Lance really said.  “Well they’re the Marmora warriors, they are non benders who knew the last Avatar.  I guess you can say they’re our allies in the war.”  Shiro said, Lance looks at him with wide eyes.

“Wait… the Avatar?”  He asks.  “Does that mean they’re reborn?”

“Yes.”  Shiro nods.  “In fact, we’ve met him.”  Keith hits him in the back and glares.  “Ow, what?”

“Wow, lucky.”  Lance said with a smile.  “I wish I could meet the Avatar.”  Lance sighs dreamily.  “Meeting the Avatar would be amazing, like fighting in this awful war would be worth it.  All the misery and suffering would suddenly end and the world would be at peace…”  There’s that weight again.  Keith knows that people are going to be excited to meet the Avatar, someone born in the war must be ecstatic.  He’d rather be normal again, but he did agree to his role so might as well stick with it.

“So Lance, what did you do back when you lived with your tribe?”  Shiro asks.  Lance looks over and thought for a moment.

“Um… well I mainly helped with my family.  Took care of my nieces and nephews, and some of the other kids from our village.  Help my brother before me hunt for food, cook with my sisters, my eldest brother taught me to fight.  And I helped protect the village.”  He says.  “Just normal things.”

“H-Hey…”  Keith got his attention, Lance looks at him with a rather cold look, again he’ll have to get use to that.  “Was there, by chance, a waterbender where you lived?”  He asked, Lance slowly nods.

“Yes, one.”

“One person?”  Shiro asked, Lance sighs and looks down.

“Yeah, I don’t know who they are though.”  Lance said quietly.  “Why do you want to know?”

“Just… just curious.”  Keith said.  Shiro kept thinking about it.

“One person… so you nor your family could learn it?”  Shiro asks, Lance jumps a bit and messed with his hair.

“Yeah.”  Lance says.  “I’ve heard that the north has many benders, but we haven’t had contact with our sister tribe in years.”  He tells them.  “But our bender learned a lot on their own… from what I’ve heard.”  He quickly corrects himself.

“I find that odd.”  Shiro comments.  “Where I’m from we are all benders.”

“Well not everyone is that lucky.”  Lance tells him.  The other two felt awkward talking about this, they never knew how non benders felt about not having this gift.  Keith felt worse because he’s the lucky one who can master all of them, spirits why him?

“So if we wanted to meet a waterbender we’ll have to travel north?”  Shiro asks, Lance looks at him and nods.

“From my understanding… yes.”  Both boys look back at each other and nod.  Keith walks up on Black and got the map.  He hands it to Lance and makes him point out the north.  “Well it’s up here, obviously.”  He says.  “We’re… here.  So it’ll take maybe a few days, a week at the most.  If you two are planning a trip up there.”

“Aw…”  Shiro groans.  “That’s just great.”

“More time for me to train before we get there.”  Keith says with a smile.  Shiro sighs but nods in agreement, more time to master airbending is perfect for Keith.  That means as soon as he’s done than they can move on to water.

“What are you training for?”  Lance asks.  “You seem to have firebending down?  Or is this something you can’t share with me?”  He sounded very suspicious and untrusting.  Keith looks away, he knew why he sounded like that.  Sorry he was born in that horrid nation.  Not his fault nor was it his choice.

“We’re… um… we are…”

“Finding benders to help us with the war.”  Shiro made up an excuse.  He knew Keith was very uncomfortable telling Lance about being the Avatar.  Lance wasn’t buying the lie, he was way smarter than those two thought.

“We already are fighting in the war.”

“They are joining the Marmorians.”

“Aren’t they non benders?”  Lance asks.  “Do you guys not trust me?”  He sounded very offended, Keith didn’t think with his own response.

“Now you know how it feels.”  Lance looks at him.

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“Means you don’t trust me, so I don’t trust you.”  He snaps.  Lance glares at him, blue eyes staring at his soul.

“Yeah, trust the person from the Fire Nation, the same one that killed my father, that killed my men.  Makes so much sense.”

“I didn’t do that!  Don’t blame me for the actions of others.”  Keith snaps.  “That’s like blaming me for what the last Avatar’s mistakes!  You shouldn’t shove your hatred on me.”

“Why the hell would I blame you for that?!  Also you have no right to tell me how I should feel!  I lost my family and friends, I can feel whatever I want!”  He snaps.  “And I feel like I will never, ever like you!  And I will never trust you!”

“And you expect me to tell you my secrets?  Heh, you are an idiot.”  Keith smirks.  He walks back to Black and leans back to sleep, Lance felt his temper rise.

“Oh yeah?  Stupid mullet!  I hope they keep you out of the north, you jerk!”  Lance threw a rock on Black.  They heard an ‘OW’ before Keith peeks over with a pissed off look.  He threw the rock back, Lance squeaks and runs from the throw, Keith didn’t have good aim like Lance so it missed.

Keith growls before laying back down and sleeping, Lance peeks out from behind a rock and relaxes.  Shiro groans, now the team was fighting.  He prays to the spirits that they’ll make it to the Marmorian base without any arguments.

* * *

His wishes were not granted, Keith refused to let Lance on Black so they couldn’t take off.  Shiro was trying to play peace maker with the angry teen.

“Keith we are not leaving him.”

“He can suffer!”

“We are not leaving Lance all alone in the middle of nowhere.”  Shiro says.  “Let him on so we can take off and get back to Kolivan.”

“He can’t come.”

“Weren’t you the one worried about him the most?”

“No, he can die for all I care.”

“Our hero everyone.”  Shiro mumbles, Keith threw a bag at him.  Not approving of that little add on.  He glares at Keith and gave him a look of disapproval.  “Fine, we’re going to stay until your attitude changes, cause we are not leaving without him.”  Keith pouts and went back to laying on Black.

Shiro could not believe Keith, he never knew his temper could get that bad.  Also he holds a grudge like a woman.  No scratch that, women aren’t this bad.  Not like Lance was any better, he was still near the rock and was playing with his boomerang.  He refused to go near Black, all honesty Lance probably would love it if they took off without him.

But Shiro was not leaving a non bender out in the middle of the Earth Kingdom, poor guy just fully recovered.  He walks up to him, he glares at Shiro and went back throwing his boomerang.

“You know… we can’t take off until you and Keith make nice.  So can you go and apologize?”

“I’ve got nothing to apologize for.”  Lance caught the boomerang, he threw it again.  Shiro now realized Lance was throwing the thing to let out any pent up frustration.

“You know Keith is on our side.”  Shiro tells him.  “He hates what the Fire Nation has done and wants to change that.  But he is going to have a hard time getting people to trust him.  Especially the Water Tribe.”  Lance caught the boomerang and looks at Shiro, still looking frustrated.  “If you give him a chance you’ll see he’s a good guy, and a good friend.  You could speak for him up north.”

Lance says nothing, but his look speaks a thousand words.  One of them being he is not going near Keith and what he said he one hundred meant it.  Never will like him, never will trust him.  All because he’s from the Fire Nation.

He throws his boomerang again.  Conversation was over, the two weren’t going to make up any time soon.  Great.  Shiro groans in his hands and walks back to Black.  Sitting on the ground and relaxing to the sound of his good buddy’s breathing.  Black is the only sane one in the group.

“Can we go now?”

“Are you gonna make up?”  He asks in a playful voice, Keith groans in discomfort and goes back to laying on the bison.  Shiro leans against Black and tries to relax, feeling like a worn out parent.

Lance threw his boomerang again and waits for it to come back.  Nothing… for a good twenty minutes.  It got stuck somewhere.

“Great.”  He grumbles, he looks over at the rest of the group.  They seemed content, plus he’ll be back in a sec.  He walks in the direction of his boomerang, it’s his only weapon so he can’t go without it.  Plus it’s not his, it’s his brothers.

He walks past a lake, past a few trees, and some shrubs.  He sees the boomerang in a tall tree.  Lance groans his displeasure and began to climb the tree, something he’s never done.  He wonders how people live with these things around everywhere.  They grow in the most inconvenient places and people have to put up with them.  Also they take your stuff, which in his case is his weapon.

He made it to the top branch and grab the boomerang, getting it unstuck he smiles at it then looks down.  He yelps, bad idea, way too high.  He gulps, putting the boomerang on his waist and slowly climbing down, curse this stupid tree being in the middle of nowhere near water, growing out of the hard ground covered in rocks, he hates this.

Finally he got down, he sighs in relief and held his boomerang again happily.  Hah, wasn’t too hard.  Then something blocked the sunlight.  He stops and looks over, his eyes grew and he screams.

* * *

Keith and Shiro shot up and looked around, the scream sounded flat out terrified.  Shiro looks at the rock, Lance wasn’t anywhere in sight.

“Oh no… Keith come on!”  Shiro grabs his staff and began to run in the direction of the scream.  “Black you stay here.”  Black makes a noise of agreement.  Keith hops down, using the air to cushion his fall and runs after Shiro, he notices to and felt like screaming in frustration.

“That idiot running off like that!”

“Hey none of this would’ve happened if you would’ve let him on earlier!”

“Don’t blame me!  It’s his fault!”

“You’re both at fault!  One day, one day I hope you both get along!”

“Yeah not going to happen!”  Keith ran past Shiro and saw Lance fighting a group of earthbenders by himself.  He dodges their attacks and tries to hit them with the boomerang, he throws it, the man obviously dodges it.  Not realizing it would come back and knock him right in the back of the head.  He growls and glares at Lance.  He yelps and grabs the boomerang again.

Shiro counted three men, he looks at Keith.

“Let’s go.”

“Right.”  Keith firebends at one man, getting his attention.  He looks at Keith and earthbends at him.  Keith uses airbending to dodge and sent an airblast at him.  Shiro was helping Lance by using his staff to block attacks.

Lance saw one man was distracted, he sneaks up on him and knocks him in the back of the head, knocking him out.  He smiles, then squeals when another one was running at him.  He runs off.

Keith kept himself busy with the one he distracted, earthbending was the perfect shield.  All his attacks were for nothing, he blocked his fire and air.  Keith would have to think of a new angle to attack.  He watched how Lance and Shiro were fighting, Shiro was using airbending while Lance tried to land a hit.  He noticed Shiro jumping and floating to avoid the stones.  The earthbender seemed distracted by Shiro so Lance had time to strike, or try to.

Then like a lightbulb Keith had an idea and smiles, Shiro’s jumping gave him an idea.  Hopefully it’ll work.

He firebends at the man, he creates a wall, what Keith wanted him to do.  Keith uses airbending to jump over the wall and at the man.  Before he can react Keith sends a fire whip at him.

At that moment Shiro and Lance knocked the other guy out.  The three stopped and saw the men all unconscious.  Shiro looks at Lance with concern.  Before he could get a word out Keith came up and yelled at him.

“What is wrong with you?!  Running off like that without Shiro or I knowing!  We were worried sick!”

“Wha-”

“Now look at you!  You’re all cut up!”  Keith shouts.  “Seriously what were you thinking?!”

“My… my boomerang.”  Silence.  “It got caught in the tree, so I went to get it.  Then those men attacked me.”

“Probably thieves.”  Shiro says, he looks at Lance and tried to sound a lot calmer than Keith.  “You did scare us though, that scream… it sounded like you got hurt.”

“I did get hurt.”  Lance shows all the cuts and bruises.  Keith grabs his arm to get a closer look, he yelps in pain.  “Ow, jeez warn a guy!”

“Shiro do we have anything for this?”

“No, we’ll have to see if Kolivan has anything.”

“Hey I can take care of myself!”  Lance took his arm back and pouts.  Why Keith suddenly cared so much he didn’t know but it was freaking him out.  Keith just stares at him and grabs at his hair.

“You leave our sight for a second and we find you in a fight with three benders and you’re all beat up.  Why didn’t you try to run?  They were out of your league!”

“Seriously?”  Lance sounded hurt.  “I’m not weak!  I can fight some benders just fine!”

“No you cannot!  Why do I bother talking to you?  You won’t listen!”  He looks at Shiro.  “Forget you!  Give me!”  He takes Shiro’s staff and walks off.

“Where are you going with that?”  Shiro asks, Keith jumps on a rock and got the wings out.

“I’m gliding back to Black, have fun walking back!”

“What?!”  Shiro wants to know why he’s getting punished.  “Keith give that back, you need to airbend to get the currents flowing.”

“I can airbend just fine!”  Keith hops off the rock and glides back.  A little rocky but Keith was getting it.  Shiro groans and looks at Lance.

“Come on, let’s get going.”  He notices Lance’s expression, utter shock.  Oh yeah… no one told him.  Shiro smiles nervously and made jazz hands.  “Surprise~”

* * *

The two walk back and see Keith playing with an airball.  He throws it high then firebends at it to see what it’d do.  It blew up, now he knew.  Keith sees them come back, he hops down and pouts.

“Took you two long enough, felt like I was waiting for hours.”  He said, Shiro raised an eyebrow and gave him a disapproving look.  Lance was giving a similar look, though it didn’t feel like a father staring, something different that Keith couldn’t put his finger on it.  “Something wrong?”

“Your big secret that you’re the Avatar?”  He asks, Keith’s face flushed.  He forgot Lance didn’t know.  He looks down, and tried to keep a threatening face.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”  He sounded… kind?  It was kind of a one eighty on his attitude.

“Cause… you seemed to excited for the Avatar.  I thought you’d freak out… like everyone else who meets me.”  He remembers the Marmorians, and thinking about the future.  He doesn’t want everyone to freak out at the sight of him.

He looks at Lance who gave him a confused look, eyebrow raised and blue eyes quirked in such a way that honestly made him look adorable.

“Why would I do that?”  He asks.  Keith looks at him and shrugs.  Lance chuckles and puts his hands on his hips.  “I’m just wondering why a jerk like you is the Avatar.”

“Wha-Hey!”  Keith snaps, Lance chuckles again.

“No wonder you want to go to the north.”  His laughing made Keith feel like he was being mocked, laughed at, a joke.  “I guess I can put in a good word for you.”

“Huh?”  Keith looks up at him with surprise.  Lance gave him a smile, a sincere one.

“I’ll go with you to the north, I’ll help you get in so you can learn waterbending.”  Lance says.  “Just remember if you betray us-”  He grabs Keith’s chin with one finger and smirks.  “You are going to have to deal with a very unhappy Lance.”  That made Keith smirk, a competitive one.

“Oh and I wouldn’t want to upset you.”

“You wouldn't.”  Lance warns.  He lets go and hops on Black.  “Well let’s go.  You said we were going to meet up with these Marmorians.”  He says.  Shiro was just standing there in shock, those two idiots just made up like the fight never happened.  And Lance agreed to help them meet a waterbender.

Are they going to jump back and forth from being friends to bitter enemies?  Cause Shiro is going to be in for a long ride.  He hops on Black and grabs the reigns.  With a yip yip they were off.

The air between them has eased a bit, some distrust still lingers, but with enough time Lance will trust Keith.  And maybe, just maybe, those two can become friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for awkwardness! Time to celebrate, get the wine! Woo!


	6. Duty as the Avatar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a fever and a horrid cough for a few days. I've been trying to get this chapter done but after a paragraph I'd pass out. Enjoy this chapter.

The sky turned dark while they flew.  Keith fell asleep while Shiro pets Black to keep him awake.  Lance was wide awake staring at the sky, just content with the world.  He lays back and was thinking to himself, speaking his mind moments later.

“I wonder if this is a good idea, showing our ways to them.  What do you think?”  He asks the sky.

“Why are you skeptical?”  Shiro asks.  “Also who are you talking to?”  He asks, Lance’s face changed into a light pink and looks away.

“Just… just thinking out loud.”

“Who asks ‘what do you think?’ in their head?”  He teases, Lance pouts and looks back at the sky.  It fell silent between the two.

“You know… I love the night sky way more than the day.”  He says, he rolls on his side and stares at Shiro.  The older man smiles.

“Why is that?  Perhaps cause the sun’s too hot?”

“Mmmm no, not that.”  Lance smiles and rests his head on his hands.  “The stars remind me of the snow.”  He says in a small voice.  “Also the moon, it helps me relax.”

“How so?”

“Just, makes me feel safe.  Especially when it comes out from the dark.  They’re the most beautiful when full.”  He says as he looks back out at the sky.  “See?  Isn’t it beautiful?”  Lance asks when the clouds moved, giving a better view of the moon.

“Yeah, it is.”  Shiro nods in agreement.  The group was silent again, Lance continued to stare at the moon till he fell asleep.  Shiro looks over and covers him up with Keith’s blanket.  Hey they need to bond, so share.

Shiro curled up on Blacks head and fell asleep moments later, the bison kept flying.  A lot of energy to spare.

* * *

The blinding sunlight woke all of them up, or they wanted to stay asleep so they curled up and hid their face.  Keith looks at Lance and pulled the blanket off his body.

“Wake up, we’re almost there.”

“Noooo sleeeeep.”  He whines, Keith wraps the blanket around himself and smirks.  Lance made a whimper and curled up in a ball.  Keith nudge him with his foot.  “Stop it… be nice to meeeeeee.”

“This is me being nice.”  Keith says, Shiro groans.  He prays they don’t start fighting again-aaaand Keith nudge Lance into the water…

“YOU FUCKER!”

“You awake yet?”

“I SWEAR I WILL KICK YOUR ASS KEITH!”

“Try me non bender.”  Keith says as he lays back down.  Lance pouts as Shiro saves him.  He sat next to Shiro and refused to look at Keith till they made it to the island.

As soon as they landed Keith hops down with Shiro and smiles.

“It’s nice to be back.”  Shiro comments, Keith nods.  As much as he hates the people watching him all the time, it was nice to hide out here.  Also give the people time and they’ll grow accustomed to Keith that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him.

Lance hops down onto Keith and latched onto him, tackling him to the ground.

“REVENGE!”

“GET OFF OF ME!”  They wrestled each other on the ground.  Shiro sighs and walks Black to the hideout.

“Meet me at the hideout when you’re done playing.”  He deadpans.  Shiro and Black make it to the base.  Everyone was rebuilding and modifying everything.  He was impressed by how things were looking.

“Air Nomad, you have returned.”  Kolivan says.  He looks around than back at Shiro.  “Where is the Avatar?”

“With a new friend…”

“Friend?”  As soon as he asks that they heard screaming.  Lance runs by like his life depended on it.  He hops on Black and hid.  Keith ran in two seconds later, face as red as fire.

“Where is he?!”  He asks like a wild animal on the hunt.

“Why are you chasing Lance?”  Shiro had to ask, Keith looks at him and points at his ear.

“He licked his finger and put it in my ear!”  He shouts.  “Where is that disgusting twerp?!”

“A twerp who’s a year younger than you?”

“Stop commenting and tell me where he is!”  Keith snaps.  Lance peeks over Black, Keith spots him.  He airbends on top of the bison, they heard a squeak and Lance hops out off, he clings to Shiro.  Keith got down and glares at him, Shiro stops Keith and held Lance as to say ‘I’m protecting this idiot’.  Keith pouts and looks away.

“Hello again Avatar.”  Kolivan says to Keith.

“Hi.”  He waves.  Lance just stares at Kolivan, he was a big guy.  No big is an understatement, he was huge.  Tall, muscular, looks like can lift rocks with ease, and also looked scary.  Lance just noticed the huge scar on his face as well.  Damn this dude has been through a lot.

“Who is this?”  Kolivan looks directly at Lance, yellow eyes staring right at him.  Lance stood up by himself, Shiro letting him go.  Keith lunges and pins him down, the two wrestled again.  Shiro groans and walks off.

“That is his friend.”  He tells Kolivan, who was standing there watching the two fight.

“I… see…”

“Just ignore them, they’ll stop… eventually.”  Shiro says before going to the center of the hideout.

* * *

Kolivan invites them in and talks to the three, mainly the new member of the party.

“Ah so your name is Lance.”  Kolivan said.  A dirt covered, messy haired Lance nods with a smile.  Keith sat next to him and pouts, looking just like the smiling Water Tribe boy.  Shiro looked done and wanted to sleep for fifty years.

“From what I can see, you are from the Water Tribe.  Am I correct?”  Lance nods again.

“I’m from the south.”  He tells Kolivan, he nods and started to ask questions.

“How is the south?”  Silence.

“Um…”  Lance looks down.  “Not… it’s not good.”  He says.  Shiro rubs Lance’s back and looks up at Kolivan.

“We found Lance in a massacre, he was the only one alive.  All his soldiers were dead, the rest of his tribe ran off and hid.”  He tells Kolivan.

“Ah, I am sorry to hear that.”

“Y-Yeah.”  Lance nods.  Kolivan dismisses Lance, he slowly got up and sits with Black.  Kolivan looks back at the other two. 

“So what are you planning on doing with that young man?”  He asks Shiro.

“Well, we don’t know.”  He looks out then back.  “We thought he could stay with you, but maybe it’s best if we take him up north.  We’ll need his help getting into the Northern Tribe.  Also I think he’d rather be surrounded by something familiar and not travel around.”

“If you think that is for the best.”  Kolivan says.  “Are you going to the north to find a waterbender?”  He asks Keith, he nods.

“Yeah, as soon as I get airbending down I can move onto water, right?”  He asks, Kolivan nods.

“Then after that it is earth.  Also you must try to get in contact with your past lives.”  He tells Keith, that was something he’s never heard of before.

“What?”  He wanted to know what that means.  Lance pokes his head in and got their attention.

“Where’s your food?”  He asks, Shiro sighs and looks at Keith.  He knew what that meant and got up to show Lance where everything was.  Shiro looks back at Kolivan, the elder man spoke.

“Shiro, you are an Air Nomad, the closest people to the spirits.  Would you be so kind as to teach Keith about meditation and how to get in contact with his past lives?”

“Me?”  Shiro asks.  “I dunno, meditation doesn’t seem like Keith’s thing, it requires patience and keeping calm.  He’s as calm as a firework in the sky.  I don’t think he’ll be able to do it.”

“He is the Avatar, he can do anything and everything.”  Kolivan said.  “Just tell him about it.”  That was that apparently, conversation over, Shiro is now going to teach Keith meditation.  Well Keith’s almost got airbending down, so meditation before waterbending wouldn’t be so bad.  Plus meeting the past Avatar might do Keith some good.

* * *

“Spirit world?”  Keith asks.  The three boys were walking through the forest.  Shiro watches as Lance hops over a root.  Keith walks over it next to Shiro so they could continue their conversation.

“Yes, as the Avatar you have the ability to contact the spirit world.”  Shiro explains.  “You act as a bridge to that world, and you can enter it freely.”  He says as he kept climbing through roots.

“So I can get in contact with the spirits?”

“Yes, but more importantly, get in contact with previous Avatars.”  Shiro tells him, Keith thought about that.  He wonders who the past Avatar is or what they look like.

“What was the past Avatar like?”

“Dunno.  They died when I was seven.”  Shiro says.

“Wow you’re old~”  Lance teases from in front.  Shiro gave him a look, that shutted him up quickly and continued to hop around the forest.

“So not only do I need to master all four elements, but I need to get in contact with the Spirit World?”  Keith asks.  Shiro nods.

“Yep sounds about right.”  He smiles, Lance looks back at them.

“So Keith can get in contact with the spirits?”

“Uh huh.  Again he should do this so he can get in contact with the other Avatars.”  He tells Lance, he looks at Keith a with a smile.

“Dang, you are the luckiest jerk on the planet.”  He teases, Keith rolls his eyes and the three kept climbing and walking around.  “So how is he going to get in contact?”

“Meditation.”  Shiro says, Keith stops and looks at him with a very worried look.  “Is there a problem Keith?”

“Meditate?  As in sit around for an eternity doing nothing… in complete silence?”

“That’s meditation, yes.”

“I-I can’t do that.”

“Yep, knew you were going to say that.”  Shiro says.  “So if we don’t know something we practice it.”

“I’d rather practice anything else than meditate.”  He deadpans, Shiro sighs and the three made it to the other side of the forest.

“Alright.  Sit here.”  Shiro instructs, Keith groans and sat down.  He crossed his legs and pouts.  Shiro sat in front of him.  “Now breath in, and relax.  Concentrate on finding your peace.  You are the bridge Keith, the only who can go in freely.”

Keith copied Shiro’s position and closed his eyes, concentrating as hard as he could.  Lance sat next to both of them and watched them meditate… or whatever Keith was doing.  A good few minutes pass and Lance started to laugh.

“Keith you look constipated.”

“Shut up!”  Keith’s eyes snapped open and he yells at Lance, Shiro snaps his fingers to get Keith’s attention.

“Ignore him Keith, focus on finding your center.  Your peace.”

“I’d be more at peace if he left me alone.”

“Ow.”  Lance says with a smirk.  “Can’t get rid of me that easily.”  That made Keith pout in annoyance, he went back to his regular position.  His eyebrows furrowed together as he concentrated on meditating.

_ Focus… concentrate on getting to the Spirit World.  You can do it, you’re the Avatar.  You are the only one who can do it…  Just concentrate, concentrate… _

“I give up.”  Keith said.  Shiro groans and looks at the boy.

“Keith come on.  Don’t give up like that.”

“Shiro I can’t do it.”  Keith said.  “I feel nothing.  I have no idea how to get into the Spirit World, and if I did go in would I be able to come out?”

“Keith it’s more like your mind goes in.”

“I don’t care, I can’t do it.  I give up.”  Keith pouts, Lance was laying on his side with his elbow supporting him, palm on his cheek.  He raised an eyebrow at the Avatar.

“Wow.”  Was all he said.  Keith looks at him with a rather pissed off look.

“You got something to say?”  He asks in a cold tone.  Lance kept staring at him, he finally spoke up.

“How are you going to master all the elements with that type of attitude?”  He asks, Keith jumps a bit and looks at Lance.  He stood up and put his hands on his hips.  “This is another part of being the Avatar, suck it up and keep at it.  You’ll get it eventually.”  He began to walk away.  “You know… you can’t learn everything in a day.  Sometimes it takes months… sometimes years.”  Lance looks at his own hands, then back up with bright eyes and a smirk.  “Keep that in mind, Avatar.”

With a wink he walks off, Shiro looks back at Keith.  He was just staring, like he got slapped in the face.  He took a deep breath and tried again, concentrating and trying to get in contact with anything.  Shiro smiles, maybe keeping Lance around would be for the best.  If he can get Keith to keep at it, he might make a decent Avatar.

* * *

The two stopped trying for a day, Keith was getting frustrated and it was getting nowhere, and walked back to the hideout.  Lance was sitting with Black and watching Keith practice airbending.

He was sure determined to master it, though he kept getting upset over something.  Lance laughs at him whenever he threw a little tantrum, he was like a child trapped in a teenager’s body.

“What are you laughing at?”  Shiro asks while looking up.  Lance peeks over and points at Keith, Shiro lets out a breathy chuckle and watched as well.  “Still trying to make it, huh?”  He asks himself.  “Keith you’re not getting enough air.”

He began to instruct him.  Lance saw what Keith was trying to do, Shiro made an airscooter and rides around.  Keith pouts and tries again.  Failed, again, fail, again, fail, again-

“How do you do that?!”  Keith finally snaps, Lance broke out laughing.  He slowly looks at the boy, in anger he sent an airblast at him.  Lance screams and falls off, hitting the ground.  He got up and held his arm.

“Ah… great.”  He mumbles, taking his hand off and seeing the blood on his palm.  He breathed in through his teeth.  “Thanks a lot  _ Avatar _ .”  Lance hissed, he got up and stormed off.  Keith stuck his tongue out and continued to practice.  Shiro watched as Lance walked off.

He stops his airscooter and floats to the ground.  Looking back at Keith with a raised eyebrow that said ‘what did you do?’.  Keith gave an innocent face, the stare got more intense.

“He was laughing at me.”  Keith points out.  Shiro groans and hid his face in his hands.  He keeps forgetting that Keith has no social skills or tact at all.  So friendly teasing to others seems like insulting to him.

Kolivan walks past Lance who was still holding his bloody scratch.  He notices and got Lance’s attention.

“One from the Water Tribe,”  Lance turns when he hears that.  “Do you require assistance?”  He asks while pointing at his scratch.  Lance shook his head.

“I got it.”  He hissed and stormed off.  Kolivan was confused and walked towards the other two.

“He seems very upset.  Also he seems to keep his distance from everyone else.”  Kolivan tells Shiro, obviously referring to Lance.

“Dunno, people from the Water Tribe are very social from what I’ve heard.  Guess it’s only with their kind…”  Shiro says with a shrug.  “And the upset thing, you can blame him for that.”  He gestures towards Keith, who fell on his stomach, still trying to make an airscooter.  “Keith give up.”

“Never!”

* * *

Night rolls by quickly.  Keith was setting up a bed for himself while Shiro cooked.  He was glad there was more to eat than just noodles this time.  Shiro sighs in content and looks at Keith.

“Okay it’s done.  Could you see if Lance is still outside?”  He asks, Keith nods and walks out.  When Lance came back after cooling off he went on the roof to watch the sun go down.  As expected he’s still there.

“Lance?”  He called, Lance didn’t budge.  It was like he was in a trance.  “Hey Lance!  Hello!”  Keith waved his arms to get his attention.  The boy jumps and looks down.  “Do you wanna starve?”

Lance smiles and hops down, quickly running in after Keith and sitting around the heated pot.

“Yay, not just noodles!”  Lance says, he noticed Keith staring at one odd dish before them.  Shiro smiles and nods.

“I told Kolivan you wanted meat so he gave us some roasted duck.”

“Awesome!”  Keith picks some up and started eating.  Lance took some and took a cautious bite.  Keith saw him being cautious and tried taking it, Lance pouts and held his food up.  “If you aren’t going to eat it, I’ll take it.”

“No!  I just never had duck before.  Most we had back home was seals and arctic hens.  Mostly fish though.”  Lance said.

“Sounds sad.”  Keith said taking more duck and rice.

“Well I guess.  Thanks to the war hunting has become more and more of a chore.”  Lance said.  Shiro picks at his rice and noodles and nods.

“Back in the Air Nomads we’d always have to wait for our food to look ripe, I remember I once had to eat egg dishes for weeks.”  He said.  Lance actually laughs at that.

“At least you two didn’t get rocks hurled at your head.”  Keith comments, Shiro started to laugh.

“Oh that’s right.  Lance, Keith usually stole his food from shops and he dragged me along once.”

“No way.”  Lance said.  “You stole?”

“I was an orphan!  Can ya blame me?!”  Keith asks, he didn’t know if they were teasing or not.  Both of them were laughing, bright and happy smiles all around, Keith smiles back.  Maybe they thought it was actually funny.  Who knows.

They all finished up and got settled in.

“Okay, you guys get some rest.  We’re on the road again tomorrow morning.”

“Can’t we stay a little longer?”  Lance asks.

“We need to get to the north Lance.”  He says.  “Keith is so close to mastering airbending, after that it’s waterbending.”  He heard Keith groan in his pillow.  The other two chuckle and fall asleep.

* * *

Keith woke up at dawn and snuck out of the house, he tries to stay quiet so no one catches him.  As soon as he was out he closes his eyes and took a deep breath.  Motioning his hands with the air around him.  He quickly moves his arms down with the air surrounding him, he jumps up and lands on… air?

He quickly looks down and smiles.  He was on an airball.

“I did it… I did it!”  It faded away.  Keith tried again, he rode around  at great speed.  “WOOO!  I DID IT!”  He yells.  He heard some clapping, he stops and looks at the window of his house.  Shiro and Lance were both clapping for him, he turned red and glares at them.

“Good job Keith.”  Shiro said.

“H-H-How long were you awake?!”

“A bit.”  Shiro said with a smirk.  “Someone woke us up with a ‘woo’ and an ‘I did it’.”  He teases.  Keith pouts and looked away.  Lance got his attention, he points behind him.  Keith looks over and saw everyone was watching him.

He shrieks and airbends away.  Lance looks up while Shiro laughed.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back.”  He pats the younger boys back and went back to bed.  Lance just stared at the sky waiting for Keith to come back.


	7. Rolo and the Freedom Fighters

“Here it comes, think fast!”  Shiro uses airbending to launch a hollow ball out of nowhere.  Keith tried to catch it but it launched itself into a goal.  Keith pouts.  “Score!”

“I hate this game!”

“Hey it’s good practice.”  Lance comments while riding on top of Black.  The team was suppose to leave the Marmorian base that morning but Kolivan told Shiro that they worked on an airball court in the forest.  So obviously they had to stay and play a few rounds, and Keith was getting more and more frustrated as the game went on.

Shiro got the ball again and launched it, Keith got control of the air in it and pushes it back.  Shiro went out of his way to be a show off and jumped to kick it.  Keith was having a hard time as is balancing on the stupid poles.  Then there’s Shiro, doing flips and shit while being in the air.

Keith got mad and launched it off course, he was done.

“Enough of this!”  He shouts.  The ball hits Lance in the gut, hard.  He started cursing Keith’s name as he held the hollow ball.

“Come on Keith, this is suppose to help you with your airbending.  Help you with dexterity and balance.”

“Yeah, and this game is a crock of shit.”  Keith said while folding his arms across his chest.  Lance held the ball up for Shiro to take.  Taking it back and spinning it in his hands he looks directly at Keith.

“Listen Keith, you’ve practically mastered the basics of airbending.  We’ll be moving onto the master techniques.”

“Master?  You told me you didn’t get that far with your master.”  Keith points out.  Shiro sighs and lifts the ball to launch.

“Never stopped me from practicing.  I’m twenty five, I could be considered a master now.”

“Yeah right.”  Keith stopped the ball and launched it back.  Shiro stops it and kicks it in the goal again.  “I call crap!”  He snaps, Shiro laughs at him, Lance claps and continued to watch.  “You wanna try Lance?”

“Ha ha, you’re so funny.”  He responds, Keith grew a playful smirk and launched it at Lance.  “Nononononono KEITH!”  He shrieks as the ball hits him again.  Shiro takes the ball back as Lance laid on Blacks back in pain.

“Okay if you’re done flirting can we get back to playing?”  Shiro asks.  Keith quickly turns at Shiro’s words, coming up with something to say.  Only for the ball to go right by him again and into the goal.

Keith screams in frustrated anger.  He launched the ball right at Shiro, who easily stopped it with a smirk.

“Fuck you!  I’m not playing anymore!”  He airbends himself onto Black and curls into a ball in the corner of the saddle.  Shiro airbends himself over and started flying off.  Meanwhile Lance was still dying on the saddle.

“Well that was fun.”  He comments, then looks at the poor sap lying there.  “You might want to check and see if he’s hurt.”  Shiro tells Keith, he sighs and looks at Lance.

“He’s breathing.”

“Nooo I thought he died.”  Shiro said sarcastically.  “Check if he’s okay.”  He practically orders Keith.  He groans and shook Lance a bit, he whimpers in pain.

“Are you hurt?”  He asks, Lance said nothing.  His pathetic state should be a give away, but Keith really didn’t think about it nor did he really care.  He kept shaking Lance, the more he shook the more the other whimpered in pain.

“Stop shaking me…”  Lance finally said.  “My body is in pain.”  Keith said nothing, he instead rests his head against Lance’s waist and relaxed.  “Oh this isn’t funny.  I’m not a pillow.”  Lance said quietly.  Keith wasn’t looking at him, but Lance could see the smirk on his face.

Was this all funny to him?  Cause Lance didn’t find it funny.  Keith has no reason to be this mean to him, to treat him like he was nothing more than a headrest.  He tried getting up but Keith used air to push him back down.

“You stupid-!”  Lance snaps, Keith kept on looking up but that stupid smug smile stayed.  “Shiro!  Keith is being a bully!”  Lance tattles on him.  Keith turns around so he’s facing Shiro, still using Lance as a rest, now just having his arms draped over his waist.

“I am not~”

“Keith.”

“What?  I’m being honest.”  He said trying to look innocent, his smile gave him away though.  Shiro buries his face in his hands and counted in his head.  Finally he looked back at them, mainly Keith, and spoke.

“Quit teasing him, Lance sit up so he doesn’t have a reason to pick on you and your pathetic state.”  He says.

“Oh how dare I lay here in pain.  Not like I had an airball launched at my stomach.  No this is clearly my fault.  How dare I- Don’t you snuggle to me!  I am not a pillow!”  He shrieks at Keith who looked like he was trying to go to sleep.

“Yeah you’re right, pillows don’t talk and are far less annoying.”  He says.  “But you’ve got enough fat to be a pillow so it’s hard to tell.”  He heard an offended gasp.

“You take that back!  I have a gorgeous body!  Everyone wants this!”  He says proudly, lifting one leg in the sky.  Keith stares at it with a flat expression.

“Yeah, everyone wants you and your fat ass.”

“I have a great ass thank you very much!”  Lance says.  “You’re just jealous of how incredible I look.”

“I wouldn’t call a toothpick with a big rear incredible.”  Keith says with a smirk, that was it.  Lance quickly got up and trapped Keith between his legs, crushing him with his thighs.  He started slapping Lance’s leg as in to say he gives up.  Lance showed no such mercy, he kept squeezing his head.  Shiro looks over at the two and snapped his fingers.

“Oi, break it up you two!  Lance let him go, he’s learned his lesson.”

“No, call me a fat ass this is what happe-OW!”  He releases Keith and held his leg.  “That hurt you jerk!”  He saw Keith still had a fire in his hands.

“You wouldn’t let me go!”

“So you try to burn me?!”

“You tried to crush me!”  He snaps.  “As much as I like being between a guys thighs, I don’t want that to be the death of me!”

“You try and burn me again and I’ll squish your head.”  Lance says as he closes his legs together to prove a point.  “I’ve got a lot of muscle here, your head wouldn’t be that hard to crush!”

“Will you two shut up?”  Shiro snaps.  “You two are like children.”  He looks forward again, Black made a low noise to Shiro, he nods.  “I know, they are idiots.”  Both boys gasp and smack the sides of the bison in protest.  To Black it felt like petting so it was a win for him.

* * *

They landed near a random part of the Earth Kingdom and set up camp, it was in the middle of a forest.  While Keith started practicing his airbending, Shiro and Lance did their own thing.  One was checking the map to find out how much longer it will take to reach the north while Lance was walking on his heels cause fuck he had nothing better to do.

Shiro looks at him, noting that he wasn’t doing anything important at the moment and decided to suggest something.

“Hey Lance, be a dear and find us some water.”  He says, Lance looks over at the older man in protest.

“Why me?  Make Keith do it!”  He whines.

“Keith is currently doing something while you are not.”  Shiro points out, he threw a container at Lance.  “Now quit your whining and go do it.”  Lance groans like the teenager he is.

“Fine.”  He drags the container on the ground to point out how much he didn’t want to do this job.  Grumbling the entire way, saying things like ‘of course I have to do it’ and so on.  He found a lake and gently put the container in, watching it fill up with water.  When it was full he dragged it back, mainly because it’s too heavy to carry now.

His attitude seemed to change, now he was humming a bit as he dragged the full container against the ground.  Then he heard rustling around him, he stops and looks around.  He felt like something was watching him.  He kept walking slowly, soon enough soldiers surrounded him… great.

“Halt, young man.”  One shouts.  They seemed to have a problem with him, he had no clue what it was.  “What is a Water Tribesman doing out here?  Are you alone, where are the rest of your men?”  Lance didn’t answer, but his eyes shot an unafraid and determined look.

They could sense that he wasn’t going to talk so they all pointed swords at him, he looks around in silent panic.  He didn’t bring his weapon like the oh so smart guy he was.  Though that wouldn’t save him in the situation he was in at the moment.

He put the container down and stares all of them down.  The kept ordering him to speak or die where he stood.  His stare was challenging the soldiers, practically telling him to try and kill him.  His hand twitched slightly, like a swordsmen holding the handle of his sword before drawing it from its sheath.  Like he was about to pull out a weapon of his own.

A few lunged at him, before Lance could try anything a few people came out from above the trees and attacked the soldiers surrounding him.  Lance covered his face with his arm, looking around after the attack.  The soldiers were gone, he was actually confused cause everything was going by so fast.

“What do we have here?”  A cool voice asks, Lance quickly looks over to see his saviors.  A man with white hair going down his neck and bangs covering his eyes and clothes not from any nation he recognized.  Accompanying him was a woman with blond hair in twin tails and equal attire.  A few others were around them, but they seemed younger than the two.  Either that or they were all midgets.

“Seems like a little boy got lost.”  The man said, Lance folds his arms across his chest.

“Uh rude?  I could’ve taken them on.”

“How?”  The man asks.  Lance looks down and pouts, before the man could continue they heard someone called his name.  He recognized that voice anywhere, the one voice that annoys him to no end.

Keith runs in with Shiro right behind him.

“You alright?  We heard shouting.”

“I’m fine, some soldiers from the Fire Nation came out and about attacked me.  These guys came in and helped out though.”  He admits.  They wave and look at Keith, a little confused by his appearance.

“Someone from the Fire Nation concerned for a Water Tribesman?  Also an Air Nomad?  What is this little freak show I am blessed to see?”  The white haired man asks.  Shiro and Keith gave questioning looks.

“I am Shiro and this is Keith.  We were travelling up north.”  He tells them.  The man nods.

“Oh I see.  Well if we’re giving out names I’m Rolo, leader of the Freedom Fighters.”  He says.  “This girl here is my friend and right hand Nyma.”

“Hello.”  She says sweetly.

“The rest of these kids are the Freedom Fighters.  We fight against the Fire Nation.”  He says.  Shiro smiles.

“Guess that means we’re on the same side.”

* * *

The hideout was cool, a bunch of forts in the trees like a giant treehouse.  Rolo invites the team in the main home and told him the Freedom Fighter’s history.

“I, like the rest of these munchkins, were friends and family living in the same orphanage.  The Fire Nation burned our village down and killed many of our people.  Nyma, Beez and I were the eldest and lead the younger ones out of the burning building.  Even then we couldn’t save everyone.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”  Shiro said.  Rolo nods, giving them a soft smile.

“Thanks.  It happened almost ten years ago, we don’t think about it much anymore.”  He says.  “We avenge our fallen brothers and sisters by fighting the Fire Nation.”  Rolo looks over at Nyma and Beez, who was smaller and had blackish hair and teal eyes.  The fact that the short kid was considered to be around the same age as the other two was astonishing.

He looks back at them, dark brown eyes contrasting his hair well, not to mention he was tall and his voice was seductive as hell.  No one seemed to care about that but a certain boy who tends to get rather flustered around pretty guys too easily.

“So what’s your story?”  He asks Keith, Shiro and Lance noticed Keith’s breath hitched a bit.  He looks down and played with some of his hair, Rolo kept speaking.  “Not everyday I see a rebel from the Fire Nation.  And with two different nomads at that.”  He comments.  Shiro decides to speak up, like he always does.

“Well we’re jus-”

“I’m the Avatar!”  Keith says without hesitation.  The whole room went quiet, both of his friends looked at him wondering if he was okay.  Rolo, as well as the other two, looked rather surprised.  Their eyes lit up, staring at Keith with hope.

“No way…”  Rolo managed to say.  Keith cleared his throat and nods.

“Y-Yeah, I can show you.”  Keith got up and created fire.  He puts it out and made a tiny airball.  Rolo was rather impressed.

“Well I’ll be damned.”  He says.  “Got any other tricks?”  Rolo asks, Keith stops and held his arm.

“N-No… sorry I just started.  We’re travelling north so I can find a waterbender to teach me.”  Great, now he looks stupid.  Rolo smiles and nods.

“Well we all start somewhere.  Don’t sweat it.”  He stood up and pats Keith’s shoulder.  “The fact you’re here now is amazing.  Now we have nothing to fear.”  He says, Keith smiles and nods.  The other two noticed how giddy and lovestruck Keith looked.  Shiro smirks, learning something new about this boy everyday.  Lance sighs and looked at Rolo.

“Excuse me… are we staying the night?  Cause if not we’ll be on our way.”

“Don’t let me hold you all back, I’m sure as the Avatar your mission is more important than ours here.”

“No, we’d love to stay the night.”  Keith quickly stays.  “We could use a rest.”

“Wait wha-OW!”  Keith kicks Lance behind him, not tearing his eyes from Rolo.

“Can you give us a place to sleep?”

“Sure, follow me.”  He walks out.  Shiro got up and followed him out, Keith walks over and glares at Lance.

“You keep your mouth shut.”  He growls.  Lance stood up and felt anger boil over him.  He felt a hand touch his shoulder, he looks over to see Nyma staring at him.

“You okay?”  She asks, purple eyes showing concern.  Lance nods and gave her a sincere smile.  Hey she’s been nice so far, way nicer than his supposed friends.  If Lance was being honest he doesn’t feel like he belongs in the group.  They make him feel like he can’t do anything and they never take him seriously.  Maybe… maybe they weren’t friends.  Maybe they were using him to get into the north.

He taps Nyma’s hand lightly, signaling her to let go, and walks out towards the house they were staying at.

* * *

The group sets up a place to sleep and talked to one another.

“So Keith, why did you suddenly want to tell Rolo you were the Avatar?”  Shiro asks in a teasing voice.  Keith threw a pillow at him and chuckles.

“Shut up.  I feel like he deserves to know, that’s all.”  He lies, Lance scoffs and lays back.  Keith heard that and snapped his attention towards him.  “Got something to say over there?”  He asks coldly.  Lance looks at him with a rather unamused look, like their personalities swapped.

“No, nothing at all.”  He said coldly.  Keith puts his hands on his hips and gave Lance a smirk, a cold and cruel one.

“Are you just jealous cause these guys had to save you?  Jeez talk about ungrateful.”  He said in a cold tone.  Lance sat up and glares at him.

“Now now I’m sure that’s not true.”  Shiro says before Lance could speak up.

“It’s not true at all!  I am grateful and all, but… but something is nagging at me about these guys.  I don’t know.”

“You can either show some gratitude or how about you do us a favor and stop being so paranoid of everyone we meet!”  Keith snaps, Lance shot up to get on even ground with him.

“I have a right to be suspicious Keith!”  Lance glares at him.  “Just because you’re the Avatar doesn’t mean you’re in charge.”

“Yeah but I think my say is over yours.”  He smirks.  “I’m stronger than you and I’m a bender.  Also Shiro and I were the ones who saved you and protect you now.  If anything you should be grateful for us that we even helped you.”  He said.

Lance looked hurt, he looks at Shiro for help.  He sat there quietly, meaning he wasn’t getting involved.  Lance had an idea of what he’s thinking though, he was siding with Keith on this one.  He looks at the ground, trying to keep a strong face while thinking of what to say.

“I-You… I just- You-”

“What?  You got something to say Lance?  Say it.  I dare you to say it.”  Keith challenges him.  Lance clenched his hands into fists and shouts.

“I FUCKING HATE YOU!”  Lance grabs his blanket and storms out.

“Lance come back here.”  Shiro ordered.

“NO!  I’M SLEEPING WITH BLACK!”  He shouts.  He climbs on the bison and curls up in a ball covering himself up.  He looks up, he couldn’t see the moon due to all the leaves.  He choked up and began to cry.  Whimpering himself to sleep.

* * *

Lance woke up to the sound of kids running around Black.  He slowly sat up and looks around.  He felt a hand pat his head, he quickly looks up to see Nyma looking at him sweetly.  He quickly sat up and covered himself like he was exposed.

“N-Nyma!  What are you doing here?!  And what are they doing to Black?”  He asks.  She giggles in response.

“Well the kids wanted to use Black as a slide, he didn’t seem to mind it.”  She said.  Well that explained the kids.  “As for me… well I saw that you weren’t with your friends so I came looking for you.  You looked so peaceful while sleeping I didn’t want to wake you, so I waited for you to wake up.  Sorry for being a little creepy…”

“Oh, no no it’s fine.  Thanks for letting me sleep.”  He says with a smile.  Nyma seems relieved with that and nods.  “Wait… where’s Shiro and Keith?”  He asks, she waves him off with a smile.

“They’re fine, they’re just talking to Rolo.”  She says.  “You wanna go meet up with them?”  She asks, Lance huffs and got up.

“No, wouldn’t want to get in their way.”  He says, Nyma was confused but she hops down with him.  She grabs his arm and drags him off.

“Well if you’re free then come join the kids and I for something to eat.”  All the kids near Black follow the two down to the dining building.

* * *

Rolo, Shiro and Keith were talking about past interactions with the Fire Nation, besides Lotor Keith didn’t have many.  But he was okay with listening to others stories, he’s curious about what he’s missed all his life.

It was interrupted when Beez came up to Rolo with news.  They spoke quietly for a bit, whispering and nodding.

“Good work Beez.”  He says.  “Go tell the others, this plan will be set in motion soon.”

“What plan?”  Shiro asks.  Rolo brushes it off.

“Nothing you guys have to worry about.”  He says, he looks over to see Nyma walking up with Lance

“Hello boys, what’s on today’s agenda?”

“Our plan will be set in motion soon enough.  We just need to pinpoint the route we’ll take.”  Rolo says, she nods and rests an arm on Lance’s shoulder.  The two continued to talk, ignoring the uncomfortable atmosphere around them.  Obviously nothing has been resolved.

When Nyma was done talking she left them, saying she needed to help train the younger soldiers, she says her goodbyes and meet you laters and walks off.  Rolo said he had some of his own business to attend to and left the three.

They all stared at each other and walked near the lake to get a refill of water and some time to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet while they had it.

“It’s cool we’re meeting so many different people willing to fight.”  Keith said.  Shiro nods while Lance throws stones in the water.

“It is nice, plus these guys are rather open and friendly.”  Shiro says.  “You don’t see that anymore.”  He watches Lance throw more rocks into the water, looking rather pleased with the sounds they made as they hit the surface with a loud plop.

“Well they have strong leaders looking after them.”  Keith said with a fond expression.  Shiro chuckles at Keith.  “What?”

“Nothing.  I think it’s funny how you’ve seemed to grow such a huge crush on Rolo in less than a day.”  He says, Keith turns a shade of pink and looks down with a smile.  He wasn’t denying it.

“Well I mean… he is attractive… also a good fighter and a leader.  Who wouldn’t be attracted to that?”  He asks.  Lance raised his hand as to say he wouldn’t be.  Keith rolled his eyes at Lance and went back to talking.  “Don’t you think he’s cool?”

“I don’t know what makes guys attractive.”  Shiro said.  “I know he’s a good person though.”

“Not only that but strong and soft spoken.  Anyone would fall for that.”  Keith gushes.  “Also being hot as a fire helps.”  He says, sounding more and more like a girl fawning over a boy she just met… wait that is the situation right now.  Just replace the idiot girl with Keith.  Lance sighs and throws another rock in, Shiro talks to him.

“Why are you getting so huffy?  You’ve been hanging out with Nyma a lot.”

“Correction she finds me and hangs around me.  And I like her company cause she’s the only one here that treats me like a human who’s worthy of respect.”  Lance flat out said, Shiro’s face dropped.  “Oops, sorry.”  You could hear the bite in his words.  It made the other two uncomfortable.

“I mean she is pretty and so kind.”  He started mocking Keith by talking just like him.  “She’s gentle and smart, also helps being a sexy catch.”  He said, Keith just glares at him.

“You have a problem with me liking Rolo?”

“Not at all.”  Lance says in a cold tone, yeah he had a problem with it.  Biggest reason was those two liked him and trusted him way more than they trusted Lance.

The air grew uncomfortable again, Lance got up and walked off.  He didn’t want to be near them when everything was still so tense.

* * *

That afternoon back at the base Rolo and Nyma decided to talk to the three about their plan from earlier.  Lance somewhat listened, he was to distracted by Nyma hugging him from behind.

Keith and Shiro stood next to each other and listened.

“We want to make a waterway so it’s easier to get water to stop forest fires.”  He tells them.  Keith gave a raised eyebrow.

“Are those common here?”

“Well the damn nation keeps trying to burn us out of here.  So of course they’re happening more often than we’d like.”  He says, Shiro looks at the path they’re trying to make.

“So how are you going to do this?”  He asks.

“Well it’d be easier if you could waterbend, but since you can’t…”  Rolo looks at both of them.  “I want you to use airbending to control the water.”

“Sounds difficult.”  Keith admits.  Rolo pats his shoulder and gave him a kind smile.

“I believe you and your friend can do it.”  He says.  Keith’s heart skipped a beat and he quickly agreed.

“Y-Yeah.”  He says.  “Right Shiro?”

“I’m up for a challenge.”  He said.  “It’ll help with this place and hey, we can see how powerful your airbending is.”

“Nice to see you two helping out… right Nyma?”  He asks his right hand, who left with Lance.  “Hm… guess she left.”  He says.  “She’s taken quite a liking to your friend.”

“Must’ve.”  Shiro said.  Keith huffs and looks back at the map.  He raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“What’s this?”  He points at the x on the map.  Rolo looks and gave him his answer.

“Oh that’s where it ends.”

“So you’re just making a river?”

“I guess that’s the simple answer.”  Rolo said.  “So if you two are on board I can set everything up for tomorrow.”  He walks off.  Keith and Shiro nod and walked out.  Going back to their room.

* * *

Lance was following Nyma around, they left the three to talk a while ago and were just walking around the forest.  Lance didn’t know much about this plan to bring water to the forest.  The fighters lived close to a lake, so this whole plan seems off.

“Hey Lance, follow me.  I wanna show you something.”

“What?”  Lance asks as he began to follow her.

“You can keep a secret, right?”  She asks sweetly.  Lance nods, she grabs his arm and leads him near a village.  She points at it.  “See that village?  It’s a base for Fire Nation soldiers.”

“Oh?  No wonder they keep finding you.”

“Yes.”  She nods.  “Don’t tell anyone this but… our water plan is a lie.”  She tells him, Lance gave her a questioning look.  “It’s a plan to flood the village out.”

“What?!”  Lance asks in shock.  “B-But aren’t there innocent people down there?”  Nyma’s sweet smile turned wicked.

“A small price to pay for freedom from the Fire Nation.  And with your bending friends help, it’ll be easy.”  She rests her hand on his shoulder and smiles.  “Let’s go back.  Rolo might be a little upset that I keep running off.”  She held his hand and walked back, Lance grips her hand and looks down in sadness and fear.  He knew it, he knew that they shouldn’t have trusted them.

* * *

The sun was setting and the two were eating and talking about whatever.  Lance slowly walks in and held himself.  The two looked over and waved Lance to come in.

“Welcome back, we saved you some.”  Shiro said with kindness.  Lance pulled at his tunic and gave his friends a sad look.

“Um… I have something you guys need to know.”  He says, both look at each other then back at Lance.  They gestured him to go ahead.  “W-We need to leave here.”  He says.

Both of them sigh, he’s being paranoid again.

“Lance please, just trust them for a min-”

“No!  No you guys can’t help them!  They’re using you!  Nyma told me what they were going to do!  They- They’re going to flood a village near here!”  He started to freak out when speaking.

“Please believe me!  Please, I’m not lying!  I can take you to the village, it’s just down the path there.  Just come with me and you’ll see-”

“Knock it off Lance!”  Keith snaps.  “We are helping Rolo with his plan, you are not going to come in here and try to change our minds with some stupid made up village!  Got it?!”  He snaps, Lance held himself.  He started to whimper, but tried to stay strong.

“You really don’t believe me?  Does my opinion not matter to you guys?”  He asks.  Shiro got up and tried talking to him, lifting his hand to comfort him.  Lance smacks his hand away and glares at them both.  “Fine!  If you won’t do something about it then I will!”  He storms off.

The two sigh and went back to eating, brushing this off as Lance being dramatic.

* * *

Rolo got everyone into position, he lifts his hand up, signaling to blow the dam up and release the water.  They did and water came rushing out, Keith looks at Shiro nervously.  They worked together to make an air funnel, leading the water to their destination.  The two had to keep up with the water that was rushing out.

Rolo nods, Nyma next to him.

“All according to plan.”  She says, looking at the smile on his face.

“Yeah, those soldiers won’t know what hit em.”  His voice dark and wicked.  The two took a shortcut to see if the water was still on the right path.  Happy with it, suddenly it changes direction.

Rolo as well as the two benders were shocked.  Keith and Shiro tried changing direction, trying to get the water under control.  Finally they did and it was back on course, it was hard to keep up with it after that.

Shiro looks at Keith and called to him.

“I’m gonna go look ahead, you keep this thing under control.”  He orders, Keith nods and created a larger air funnel while Shiro followed to the x.  He sees nothing there to get in there way and stopping them.  He stops at the x and looks over… horrified.  Shiro tries to hurry back to Keith, he doesn’t know how to stop the water but they had to do something.

“KEITH, STOP!”  The water was too fast, Keith looked over at the last second, he sees the village.  A second too late though, the water rushes in and floods the village completely.  Keith froze and stood there as the water flooded the entire place.

“Lance was right…”  He said.  “Oh my… I just…”  Keith mumbles in fear.  He just killed people, innocent people.  Shiro ran around trying to find life or something, but no sign of it.

“ROLO!”  Keith roared, he just kept his same calm smile.  “What is this?!  What did you make me do?!”

“This place was serving as a base for the Fire Nation.  Housing some of its soldiers.”  He said calmly.  “So we took them out, this’ll show that damned nation that we mean business.”

“So you make us flood a village?!”  Shiro asks.  “What about the innocent lives?!”

“Many innocent lives are lost when it comes to war.  You learn to deal with it.”  Rolo sounded not at all fazed by what he did.

Keith lost it, he ran right up to Rolo and punches him dead in the face.  Rolo stumbles back a bit and looks at his nose, bleeding.  

“YOU LIED TO US!”  He glares at Keith and pulls out his weapon, a odd looking sword.

“Oh you’re gonna regret doing that.”  He ran right up to Keith, only for a boomerang to come in and hit Rolo’s hand perfectly.  Knocking his sword out of his hand.  Everyone looks up from where the boomerang came from.

“Hello everyone.”  Lance was waving from a branch.  He had a pleasant smile on his face.  Rolo glares at him, everyone else looked surprised that he was still around.  “You all seem so mad at each other all of a sudden.”

“You’re still here?”  Keith asks while Lance hops down.

“What?  You actually thought I left?”  He grabs his boomerang and cleaned it off.  Checking if it was dented or not.  He was acting quite calm despite what just happened, and that he knew about this whole plan.  Shiro decided to try and talk to him.

“Lance… we-”

“I can clearly see it.”  Lance said, pointing at the river.  “And I know where this little conversation is going.”  He gave a playful smirk, Keith felt like he was going insane.  One minute he’s paranoid, the next he’s going around like nothing is wrong.

“How can you be so calm now?!”  He snaps, Lance looks over at Keith.  “I just- we- we just killed innocent people!”  That made Lance chuckle.  Everyone was confused.  “What’s so funny?!  Rolo just made Shiro and I-”

“Who said you killed anyone?”  He asks, the two froze.

“What?”  Shiro asks.  Lance smiles at him.

“I went down and evacuated the village.”  He said, Rolo’s mouth dropped.  “Thanks to Nyma showing me your plan I went to the village and tried to convince the soldiers to help me evacuate the village last night.”  

“You did what?!”  Rolo snaps.  “You let the soldiers get away!”

“Good, I’d rather save lives than kill more people.  This war has taken too many lives.”  He says.  Rolo grabs his sword and launched himself at Lance, angered at him for ruining his plan.

Shiro grabs Lance by the arm to pull him back, Keith airbends Rolo, as well as the rest of the Freedom Fighters there, into a tree.  A loud crack echoed through as they hit the tree, bark flying off.

Keith stares for a moment, then walked away.  Shiro follows right behind him, Lance however stayed for a bit.  He just looked at Rolo and Nyma, one looked angered while the other looked rather betrayed.  Rolo spoke up when he saw Lance was sticking around a bit.

“You’re a fool.”  Lance just raised an eyebrow.  Rolo slowly got up and stares him down.  “You and your friends, you’re all fools.”  He held his sword up again, Lance showed no fear.

“Give up.  It’s over, your plan failed.  Just give it a rest.”  He said calmly.  That just made Rolo even more upset.

“When I first saw you, you were surrounded by all those soldiers.  You showed no fear, and remained as calm as ever, even though you didn’t stand a chance.  Why?  Why weren’t you afraid?”  He asks.  Lance just looks at him.

“Who said I didn’t stand a chance?”

“You didn’t have a weapon on you.”  Rolo points out.

“You’re right.  I didn’t.”  Lance started to walk away.  Rolo slowly figured out what Lance meant.

“Oh, you’re a liar!”  He shouts.  Lance stops and looks at Rolo, one that made the older man’s blood run cold.  He turns back around and walks towards him.

* * *

Keith was still deep in thought while walking with Shiro and Black.  He’s glad the village was empty when he flooded it, but he still felt like he failed.  Shiro didn’t say anything either, he looked just as upset.

“Guys!  Wait up!”  Lance was running at them, they both turn as Lance ran into Shiro, his face smushed in his arm.  “Ah!  What are you, a stone wall?”  He asks rubbing his nose.

“You’re still coming with us?”  Shiro asks, Lance raised a questioning eyebrow.

“I’m helping you get into the north, aren’t I?”  He smiles and walked ahead of them.  “So let’s go!”

“W-Wait don’t run ahead moron!”  Keith shouts, Lance began to run.

“Catch me if you can!”  He shouts back, Keith ran after him.  Shiro sighs but smiles nonetheless.  Even after all they did to him he’s still coming with, something tells Shiro that Lance has a lot of patience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a lot of work, and I'm still not sure about it. Yeah that horrid coughing turned out to be the flu, and I still have it. Lucky me. So hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	8. The Solstice, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's midnight and I'm tired but I wanted to finish this. I'm so tired so I'm gonna go to bed and work on part two... maybe.

The group travels across the Earth Kingdom on foot, no sign of the Fire Nation or anyone for that matter.  Lance was on Black while the other two walked, they gave him a hard time for that. He kept making excuses for not walking, every excuse the Avatar had a comeback for.

“You have legs.”

“But I’m tired.”

“So am I.”

“You’re the Avatar, tough it out.”

“And you complain that Shiro and I don’t consider you strong enough to protect yourself.”

“I’m still healing.”

“Oh that’s bullshit!”  Keith hops on Black. “You’re coming down right-HEY!”  He snaps when he saw Lance was laying on his stomach casually looking through his drawings.  He quickly went over and took them back, holding the book close to his chest. Lance looks up at him with a small smile.

“Oh you drew those?”

“No one told you you could look through this!”  Keith snaps. “They’re… they’re private.”

“I thought they looked good.  Not fair, you’re the strongest person in all the nations, you’ve got amazing talent, and you’re a prodigy.”  Lance said. “The spirits are truly unfair.” He didn’t sound upset, more like he was praising Keith, and Keith couldn’t take that kind of attention.  He held the book close and went back down.

Shiro smiles as Keith skimmed through the book, looking through each drawing.  Keith noticed the older ones smile and pouts. Shiro knew what he was asking, so he answered him, like reading his mind.

“He complimented your talent and you got mad at him?”

“I don’t…”  Keith held the book closer to his chest.  “I don’t like people seeing my drawings… only if I trust them completely.  Like you.”

“I heard that.”  Lance comments. Keith glares at him and continued walking.  Lance leans down and tried to reach Keith with his right arm, he could barely graze the few hairs.  “Keeeeith~ I wanna seeeeee~” He whines. “Keeeeeeith~ Keeeeeeefer-”

“Quit being annoying.”

“But Keeeeeeeef!  Keefy Keefy Keefer!”

“Can’t you say my name right?!”  He snaps.

“I am saying it right, Keefer.”  Lance teases. Keith climbs onto Black to attack, Lance shrieks and began to throw small objects to keep the Avatar back.  Shiro looks at his bison and pats his head.

“I am so sorry you’ve got to put up with those two idiots.”  He says. Black made a low noise and shook a bit. The two panicked and held each other while Black shook.  Shiro chuckles and continued to walk, the two protest in anger at Blacks action. Shiro chose to ignore them.

He stops Black and lets the two down.  Keith stretches his arms and legs, Lance grabs Keith’s sides causing him to jump.  Lance ran off laughing while Keith chased him, face completely red. Shiro pats Black again and grabs a bag.

“I’m going to find a town or somewhere.  You keep an eye on those two.” He instructs, Black snorts in understanding, with that Shiro walks off.  Meanwhile Black watches the other two run around.

* * *

Shiro looks around, trying to find something like a village or a small town or something where he can get food.  They were running low, three guys and a bison, food goes by way too quickly. Shiro notices the ground looked burnt up and torn down, he grabs a bit of the dirt and moves it between his fingers, was there a fire recently?

As Shiro kept walking, an old man stumbles up and grabs at Shiro’s clothes.  The poor Air Nomad jumps and looks at the old man grabbing him.

“C-Can I help you sir?”  He asks calmly. The old man pleads to Shiro like he was a saint or something.  Well Shiro was a monk so… close…

“P-P-Please sir!  We-We need help!”

“Peace friend.”  Shiro forced the man’s grip away and calmed him down.  “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“A monster!  A monster is attacking our village!”  The old man says in a panic.

“A monster?”  As Shiro asked that question Keith and Lance ran by, running from Black.  Both boys were trying so hard to get away from the bison. Black was actually terrifying when chasing someone, Shiro just watched as his pet bison chased both boys.

Keith tries airbending at Black, that seemed to piss the animal off more.  Keith shrieks and grabs Lance’s arm, both running again. Shiro walks over and tries to calm Black down, the bison stares Keith down.  He held his hand up, fire lit and ready to attack. The old man saw Keith and immediately ran to him.

He grabs Keith, the firebender freaks out and pushed the old man off.  He hugs Lance in hopes the man will leave him alone.

“Please sir, I-I saw you bend!  I saw you bend two elements! You-You’re Trigel’s successor!”

“Trigel?”  Keith had heard that name before from Kolivan, but he doesn’t know who that is.

“Please Avatar!”  He got close to Keith, Lance got in between them.  Trying to keep some distance.

“Sir, do you need the Avatar’s help?”  Lance asks, he grabs Lance and shakes him.

“Yes, please!  A monster! A monster!”  He threw Lance to the side, before Keith could go help the man grabs him again and shook him too.  “You have to help my village! A monster is attacking us!”

Shiro got the old man away and makes him look at Shiro.

“Okay, take us to your village.”  He says, the old man leads them to his village.  Keith helps Lance up, giving him a concerned look.

“You okay?”

“That man is stronger than he looks.”  He comments. The group walks to the village to see this monster that is terrorizing the man.

* * *

The whole village is torn down, few homes remain.  Keith looks around in shock, a monster did this? What was the monster?

Lance walks around to ask what happened while Shiro checked on the village people to see if they were okay.  The old man told everyone the Avatar was there to help them. They all looked skeptical at him, he sighs. Curse his heritage.

Lance ran up to him while Shiro walked back.

“Apparently these guys have been attacked by someone called Hei Bai.”  Lance tells them, Keith was confused while Shiro seemed shocked.

“Hei Bai?”

“You know who that is?”

“Hei Bai is a spirit.”  Shiro tells the boys. “He protects a forest in the Earth Kingdom… oh…”  Shiro looks outside the village.

“Something wrong?”  Lance asks. He points outside, both boys look over.

“I thought the ground looked a little off.  Like something was there before. I-I think the forest burnt down.”  He says. Keith shrugs.

“So?  Natural fires happen all the time.”

“No, if it was a natural fire then Hei Bai wouldn’t be attacking.”  Shiro points out. “I think the Fire Nation burnt it down, and Hei Bai is taking it’s anger out on this village.”  Both boys looked at the outside of the village then back at Shiro. “The fact that he’s here means a solstice is coming up.”

“So what do we do?”  Keith asks. Shiro points at him, Keith was confused but didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“You are going to talk to the spirit.”

“What?!”  Keith asks.  “B-But I haven’t gone into the Spirit World yet!”

“Relax, you don’t need to go into the Spirit World to talk to this one.”  Shiro comforts him. “Hei Bai sounds like he’s in the physical world, all you have to do is wait for him to come out so you can talk to him.  Tell him this isn’t the village’s fault.”

“You think I can make a difference?”  Keith asks, Lance pats his shoulder and smiles.

“Yeah, you can.  You’re the Avatar, duh.”  He says in a teasing manner.  Keith grabs Lance’s hand and rubs his knuckles, feeling comfort from the other’s touch.  Shiro looks around at everyone.

“I’m gonna go check on the others, Keith you think of what to say.”  Shiro orders. “Knowing you, you need to think of what to say.”

“Got it.”

“What about me?”  Lance asks.

“You stay and keep Keith calm.”

“Keep him calm?  You’ve got to be joking.”  Lance says. Shiro grabs Lance and spoke softly so Keith won’t hear.

“Listen, I’ve noticed that Keith actually listens to you-”  Lance about interrupts him but Shiro cuts him off. “I know what happened last time, but Keith does listen to you, he’s calmer with you.  Probably because you two are closer in age.” Lance folds his arms across his chest and thought. “Just stay with him, he’ll feel more comfortable with you around.”

Shiro walks off, Lance walks over to Keith and sat next to him.  Keith was thinking of what to say, so lost in his own thoughts he didn’t notice Lance was with him.

* * *

Night rolls by quickly, everyone went to sleep.  It was peaceful till the ground shook, the three shot up awake as well as the other villagers.  They looked around thinking they were under attack, however the villager’s reactions were telling them it was something different.

The three looked over and saw a giant black and white creature with four arms and a wide smile with a row of sharp teeth.  Everyone screamed and hid from the creature, either that or they ran. The creature had sonic screams that destroyed everything in it’s path.

“Hei Bai.”  Shiro says quietly.  Lance ran to help everyone avoid the spirit’s wrath, Shiro grabs Keith by the shoulder and nods.  Keith shook his head violently, he did _not_ want to go up to that thing.

“Keith, you can do this.”  Shiro reassures him. “These people are counting are you.”  Keith looks at him, he slowly nods and walks towards the spirit.  Shiro went to help Lance, Keith swallows hard and spoke up.

“Hei Bai.”  The spirit stops it’s attack and slowly looks at Keith.  “You need to stop attacking this village, this isn’t their fault!”

“Who are you to talk to me like that?”  Hei Bai asks. Keith messes with his arm and looks at the spirit.

“M-My name is Keith, I’m the Avatar.”  He says. Hei Bai looks down, getting closer to Keith’s face, the poor Avatar was scared beyond belief.  That’s saying something seeing how Keith doesn’t get scared easily.

“You, a frail child, is the Avatar?”  The spirit asks. “Do not make me laugh.”

“I’m not a frail child!”  Keith argues. “I’m an adult for one, and I am stronger than you think!”

“Only a child would argue like that.”  Hei Bai says. “So you being the Avatar means Trigel has passed?”

“Trigel… was that the name of the last Avatar?”  He asks.

“So this is the great Trigel’s successor?  Truly pathetic.” Hei Bai slowly stood back up.  Keith felt anger boil in him.

“Listen to me!  This village has done nothing to your forest!  It was the Fire Nation, they burnt it down! I’m asking you to leave these people in peace.”

“The forest has done nothing but provide for these humans!  How do they repay it?! By burning it down and destroying it!  I will not stand for this, I will protect my forest!” Hei Bai continued to attack the village.  Shiro saw Keith was starting to grow frustrated talking to the spirit. Lance held onto a few children as the spirit attacked the house they were hiding under.  Keith got his attention again.

“Leave them alone!”  He snaps. “Those children didn’t do anything!”  Hei Bai ignores the Avatar. He continues to attack.  “I said leave them alone!”

“Keith I don’t think he’s listening!”  Lance shouts, all the children huddle around him.  Shiro nods in agreement.

“Lance is right, you’re going to have to think of something else Keith!”

Hei Bai looks over at Lance who was holding a child close, and at Shiro who was helping the adults.  The spirit decides to attack them, he tried attacking Shiro. The airbender flew away, pointing at the spirit with his staff.

“Will you not listen to reason?!”

“Quiet Air Nomad!”  Hei Bai shouts. He looks at Lance, who was sitting with the child still.  Glaring at Hei Bai, the spirit smiles. “You can’t fight back.”

“Huh?”  Lance asks, in an instance Hei Bai takes Lance and the child.  He grabs at a few more villagers and runs off. The few scream in terror, the other villagers try to chase Hei Bai down for their family members.  Shiro was holding them back, not keeping an eye on the impulsive Avatar.

“No, come back!”  Keith ran right at Hei Bai.  Shiro couldn’t stop him, he called to Keith but he wouldn’t listen.  Hei Bai captured innocent people and one of his friends, the one who couldn’t defend himself.  He had to save them.

Keith felt like he was running forever, he had no clue where the heck he was.  He stops and looks around, the place felt oddly peaceful. He didn’t know what it was though, it looks somewhat like the Earth Kingdom.

He looks around, then notices he wasn’t his normal color.  His pale skin was glowing blue, he freaks out and looks around.  Where the heck is he?

“Who are you?”  He heard a young child speak, he quickly looks over and sees a boy glowing a slightly different color.

“Uh… can you tell me where I am?  And who you are exactly?”

“My name is Rahi.”  The child said. “You’re in the Spirit World.”  He walks around. “Follow me.”

“The Spirit World?!”  Keith was shocked. “How did I get here?!”

“You followed Hei Bai, obviously.”  Rahi said. “Come on, I’m taking you back to your body.”

“This is all too crazy… wait.”  He looks at Rahi. “How did a child like you get here?”  Rahi shrugs.

“Dunno… I ended up here eighteen years ago… after I died.”  He said calmly. Keith felt his blood run cold, this child he’s talking to… is dead.  “Follow me Avatar Keith.”

“You know me?”

“Many spirits know the Avatar.”  Rahi said with a smile. “Follow me and I can tell you why Hei Bai is so upset.”  He says.

“I know why he’s upset.”

“Then why follow him?”

“Cause he absconded with a few villagers and my friend.”  Keith points out, slight annoyance in his voice. Rahi messes with his short brown hair and thinks for a minute.  He kept walking.

The made it to a tree and the boy points at it.

“Hei Bai doesn’t think his forest can grow back.”  Rahi said. “So you must prove to him that it can grow back with time.”

“But it’s been burnt to the ground.”  He said. The child smiles and bends over to pick up a seed.  He shows Keith the acorn.

“My Mama always told me that big things have very small beginnings.”  He says. “The acorn is a lot like you, it started small, but someday it’ll be great.”  He says as he looks at the tree. “You will be like a tree someday.”

Pretty philosophical for a child Keith thought.  Rahi puts the acorn down, a tree spontaneously grew in its place.  Keith stares at it in awe, Rahi just stares and smiles.

“All things in nature take time.  Whether it’s regrowing a forest, or growing up in general.  All things take time.” He says, Keith nods and smiles at the child.

“Thank you.  You’ve given me a great idea.”  He says. Rahi looks at Keith with big curious eyes.  He grabs his hand and walks with him through the Spirit World.  Keith had to ask where they were going because it felt like they were wandering around at one point.

Like he could read him mind, Rahi answers him.

“I’m taking you back to your body.”

“Wait what about my friend and the villagers?!”  Keith asks, Rahi stops and gives Keith a reassuring squeeze.  Telling Keith that everything will be alright.

“Just go back and wait for Hei Bai, tell him about the acorn and the forest.”  He says. “Then, hopefully, the people you care about will come back. Just have faith that Hei Bai will understand.”  Rahi smiles. “He is a kind spirit.”

Keith nods and walks off, he stops and looks back at the child spirit.

“Will I ever see you again?”  He asks, Rahi shrugs. Keith gave a weak smile and continued to walk.  He hoped that someday he will see Rahi again. For now, it was farewell.

* * *

Keith woke up in a panic.  Shiro, as well as some of the other villagers, were treating him like he was ill.  It was daytime and that means Hei Bai will not be out for hours. Keith looks around, he sat up letting the rag on his head fall off.  He suddenly felt a chill, they took his shirt off for some odd reason.

He finds it next to him and slides it on, hearing some sighs of disappointment from a few village girls.  Keith looks at Shiro in confusion.

“What happened?”

“Dunno.  You ran after Hei Bai, then a few hours later we find you past out on a tree branch… we have no idea how you got there.”  Shiro says. “Where did you go? I was worried sick about you! First we lose Lance and some villagers, then you.” He snaps.  “What did chasing after a rampaging spirit accomplish, huh?”

“I found out how to stop Hei Bai.”  Keith said quietly. Shiro stops his scolding and just stares him down.

“What?”

“I found out how to stop Hei Bai’s rampaging.”  He smiles at Shiro and looks at all the villagers.  “It will be okay everyone, I promise you I will return everyone home.”  He tells them. “And hopefully we get our idiot back too.” That comment got Shiro to chuckle, that comment was so… Keith.  Only he would insult their missing friend.

Shiro decided to help hide the villagers again, Keith went out to the burnt forest to find the one thing he needs.  If he was going to convince Hei Bai, he was going to need a certain object. And finding said object in a burnt down forest was going to be quite the challenge.  But Keith is the Avatar, he is not one to back down from a challenge.

* * *

That night Hei Bai returned to reek havoc.  Everyone was prepared for this, Keith got up and walks towards the spirit.  Hei Bai looked rather unamused that Keith kept trying. He growls at the Avatar and stares him down, refusing to continue their conversation from yesterday.

Keith said nothing, only holding up an acorn to the spirit.  Hei Bai was honestly confused by what the Avatar was showing him.  The look in his eyes told Keith to explain this to him.

“This is an acorn.”  He says, the spirit gave the same unimpressed look.  “It’s… it’s a seed. Okay work with me, I am bad with words.”

“An Avatar who cannot speak properly?  You must be joking.” Hei Bai said in a mocking manner, Keith glares but kept his calm state… the best he can.

“Um… I was never exposed to social situations.”  He admits. “That’s besides the point! The point is that this is a seed.”  He points at the acorn, Hei Bai watches as Keith walks over to his forest and puts it in the ground.  “It’s also a new beginning.”

“A new beginning?”  Hei Bai asks as he walked closer.  Keith nods and points all around him.

“Yes.  With time and a lot of care, the forest will grow back to it’s once lush state.”  He tells the spirit, he looks down and shook his head.

“But… they burnt it down, how will it regrow?”  He asks, Keith gave the spirit a smile and walked closer.  Showing the spirit no fear.

“You are the guardian of this forest.  You can make it grow again, make it beautiful again.”  Keith says. Hei Bai still looked unsure, Keith nods and looked back out.  “I know it’s awful to look at, but trust me. Trust my words. It will grow back.”  He looks back at the spirit with bright eyes and a beautiful smile. “Things in nature take time, but it will grow back in the end.”

Hei Bai looks at Keith with sympathy, like somehow Keith’s words touched him.  He slowly changed forms.

“Your words, they are true.  I will work on treating my forest.”  He says, Keith nods.

“Do not worry, I’m sure the villagers will help you.”  Keith says. The spirit finally changed back, he was a panda.  He looks at Keith and bows to him.

“Thank you, friend.”  With that he walks away, bamboo growing in each of his steps.  The bamboo opened up to reveal the villagers. One by one they came out, the fifth one Lance came out with the girl.  They were still hugging each other with their eyes closed tight.

Lance opens his eyes then his head quickly shot up and looked around, the little girl did the same.  He looks at the girl, seeing if she was okay. She smiles at him and nods, like she knew what he was going to ask.

“Lance!”  He heard Keith yell, both he and Shiro ran up to him to help him up.  The little girl got out of Lance’s grasp and ran to her family. “Are you okay?”

“That felt like a crazy dream…”  He admits. “How’s everything here?  Is the issue resolved? Where’s Hei Bai?”  He was asking a mile a minute. Shiro laughs and rests a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Calm down Lance, Keith resolved it.”

“He did?”  He asks, Keith folds his arms across his chest and gave him a cocky smile.  Lance gave an equally competitive one. “Wow, I didn’t think you could do it.”

“Really?”  Keith asks a little defeated.  The little girl that was trapped with Lance runs in and spoke with them.

“That’s not what you said!”  She says. Everyone looks at her.  “You said ‘Don’t worry, the Avatar will save us.  I’m sure of it.’.” The girls smiles. “You kept telling me to just wait for him cause he’s a hero.”  

“I-I didn’t say that!”  Lance was beyond embarrassed.  The girl giggles and gave Lance a sweet smile.

“You did too.  You told me that personally.”  She points at him accusingly. Keith smirk was directed at the Water Nomad.

“Aw… do you see me as a hero, Lance?~”  He asks in a teasing manner, Lance pouts and looks away.

“I-I only said that to keep her calm.”  He lied, making up some excuse for his words.  Keith raised an eyebrow playfully.

“You know I’d keep saving you, even if you don’t want to admit that I’m your brave hero.”  Keith admits, Lance groans and storms off. Keith chuckles while Shiro sighs, but a smile was still plastered on his face.

“Okay enough flirting-”

“I WAS NOT!”

“And enough yelling… let’s all get some shut eye.”  Shiro said as he walks to their destroyed home. “We’ll need it for tomorrow.”

“Oh, y-yeah.”  Keith nods in agreement.  They all walk to the wreckage to sleep.  Keith has to admit, the spirit made him tired.  Also made him realize how dangerous his mission is, a spirit could’ve killed one of his friends.  That’s a horrible thought to keep someone up at night.

* * *

The sun hadn’t peeked in the sky yet, Keith slowly packed up his bag and sighs.  Looking down at his two friends he’s grown to love and care for. Both were sound asleep, a peaceful look he never sees.

He walks past them and began to walk away.

“I’ll be your hero, so I should stop endangering you two.”  He admits. He walks away from them, from the two people who made his life easier.

He felt something tug his bag, he looks over to see Black pulling him back.  Keith got annoyed and yanked back.

“Let go Black!”  He quietly snaps.  The bison makes a low noise in protest, not wanting him to go.  “Knock it off! I’m not staying here, I refuse to put you all in danger!  This is my mission and mine alone!”

He finally got his bag free from the bison’s teeth, before Black could do anything else Keith ran off.  He ran far from the village and far from everyone’s sight. Tears burning his eyes. He quickly rubs them away and kept running.  Stupid new emotions that make him feel this way, making him feel horrible for leaving the people he grew to love.

But it’s for the best.  He can’t keep endangering them, they didn’t deserve this.  He will become the Avatar alone, that way those two will be safe.


	9. The Solstice, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it's spring break for me I have more free time so I might get another chapter done before next week. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm gonna go pass out now.

Shiro was awaken suddenly by a loud moan and stomping on the ground, he quickly got up to see Black throwing a tantrum.  He runs to his pets side to comfort him, Black wouldn’t calm down. He had never seen Black so upset before, whatever happened is bothering him a lot.  Shiro braces himself against Black’s head to sooth the bison, still not working.

“Black, calm down!”  Shiro yells over the bisons loud calling.  Lance slowly got up and rubbed his eye sleepily.

“Shiro, what’s going on?”  He asks in a small voice.

“Black is throwing a fit!”  Shiro snaps, he didn’t mean to get upset.  His bison is to blame for his lack of patience.  “He’s usually so calm and well behaved! I don’t know why he’s acting like this.”  He admits to Lance, he hums in response.

He slowly woke himself up by looking around the remains of the village while Shiro deals with Black.  Villagers asleep in the ruble, some woke up due to Blacks fit. He noticed someone was missing, he wondered if Shiro noticed or not.

“Shiro?”  He started.  “Where’s Keith?”

“Probably went to the bathroom or somethi- WOAH!  B-Black what is wrong with you?!” Black suddenly grew more upset.  Lance finally woke up fully and his heart nearly stopped.

“Where’s his stuff?”  He asks, Shiro stops and looks over.  The small bed Keith made was gone. Lance immediately got up and began to call for him.  “Keith? Keith where are you?” No answer.

“Come on Keith, this isn’t funny!  Come out!” Lance kept calling. “Keith please!”  The more he called, the worse Black got. Shiro drew a connection.

“Black… do you know where Keith went?”  He asked, the bison stops for a moment to turn his head in the direction of a nearby mountain range.  Both of them stared at the mountain range, Lance grabs Shiro’s arm and gave a concerned look.

“Do you think he got kidnapped?”  He asks with worry.

“If someone kidnapped him then they would’ve left his things.  Clearly someone packed all his stuff.” Shiro points out. Lance looks over, giving Shiro’s arm a squeeze.

“Keith ran away?”

“Seems like it.”  Shiro said. “Black must be worried beyond belief.  I’ve never seen him so upset before.” He packs everything up and hops on Black, Lance was already up.  He curled himself up and a blanket and watches the ground fade into nothing.

It was silent, painfully silent.  Everyone in the group was worried and concerned.  They had no clue why he up and left. They don’t need the answer to that, the most important thing right now was to find him.

* * *

Keith curled up near a rock to rest his legs.  Traveling is a lot harder on foot, not going to stop him though.  He thought about where to go. He has zero chance of getting to the north now, so maybe find the Southern Tribe?

Lance did say they were hiding in the Earth Kingdom, and they had a waterbender in their tribe… granet it’s only one.  But one is better than none. He slowly got up and walks off into the mountains. He doesn’t know where he’s going, but if he finds a village then maybe they’ll have an idea.

Humming a little toon as he walks around, trying to ignore the lonely feeling in his chest.  Damn, he’s use to being alone. He use to be alone all the time, being with those two made him realize what it was like to have friends, to have company.  Being all alone sucks.

Keith shakes his head, he has to forget those two.  Forget all about them. It’s not like they’ll be looking for him.  He continues to walk in the forest in the mountains. Then a scary thought popped in his head.

What if the Fire Nation came out?  Well not everyone knows what he looks like, and he doesn’t stand out.  What if Lotor or that other guy came? … Maybe being alone wasn’t such a good idea.

* * *

The two looked over the edge on the land to find something, anything.  Just a sign that Keith is around. Nothing.

“Doesn’t help that the leaves are red.”  Lance pouts. Shiro looks over at the worried, yet annoyed boy.  He continued to look down. “KEITH?! ARE YOU DOWN THERE?!” He shouts.

“Do not yell Lance, the Fire Nation may be down there.”

“Oh…”  Lance looks back down.  “HEY FIRE NATION! YOU DOWN THERE?!”  He shouts.

“Lance!”  Shiro snaps.

“What?  It’s not like anyone from the Fire Nation heard us.”  He says. “Trust me Shiro, everything is fine. KEITH?!”  He continues to shout. Somehow Shiro knew this was going to end badly.  For either them, or for Keith.

* * *

Keith found himself in a village.  Everyone looks at him like he was a monster, Keith ignores it.  He’s not a soldier, just a traveler. While trying to distract himself he walks into a little restaurant.  He sat next to a young girl and ordered something.

The girl looked at him while eating her own food.

“Are you a firebender?”  She asks, Keith looks over at her.  He is not good with kids, he didn’t want to scare her.  What to say… what to say…

“Y-Yeah.”

“Are you evil?”  She asks. Keith smiles.

“Would an evil firebender do this?”  He made an airball and lit it on fire, he made a few more and juggled them.  The girl began to giggle, watching Keith juggle. He drops one, the floor lit on fire.  Keith shrieks and stomps the fire out. The girl was hysterical, laughing at Keith as he stomps the fire out.

He glares at the child for laughing at him, she kept laughing.  Keith’s face soften and laughed with her. His food came out, he stayed with the child and ate with her.  The two spoke about random things while eating. Keith is willing to talk to anyone.

* * *

“Why are we out in the middle of nowhere?!”  Ezor asks in a tired voice. Narti was the only one with her, she shrugs.  Lotor walks out with Axca right next to him, they look at the two girls like they were the laziest things on the planet.

“We’re out here trying to find the Avatar.”  Axca says. “Or did you already forget our mission?”

“No I just… I hate being here.  Out here in the middle of nowhere.  It’s boring and I hate it.” She pouts.  “Narti agrees with me, right Narti?” Narti looks over with wide eyes and shook her head, she did not agree with her.

Lotor said nothing, he watched the scenery with the small tank like vehicle they had.  It was slow and he hated that. He kept hearing about the Avatar appearing in different areas of the Earth Kingdom and he was always a step behind.  Lotor hates being a step behind, he should be ahead of the game, not fall short. This was his chance to get back into the kingdom, to prove himself to his father.

If he captures the Avatar and bring him back… he’ll gain his honor back.  And not just him, his four generals as well. They were all rejected and outcasted as well.  Lotor will do anything to get them in as well. They will capture the Avatar and their honor will be restored.

“Lotor?  Hello~” He didn’t notice Ezor was calling him for the past minute.  “There’s a village up ahead. Wanna bet that the Avatar was there?”

“It’s worth checking out.  Zethrid, full speed ahead!”  He shouts to Zethrid, who was behind the wheel.  She nods and drove for the village.

* * *

Keith decided to play with the girl that day, showing her all sorts of tricks he can do.  Hey it was someone to talk to and he was lonely. He needed some sort of human interaction.  He shows her the exploding airball he learned while waiting for Shiro and Lance to walk back to Black.  The airscooter, he took her on a ride with that. And a few advanced firebending.

She claps for Keith and tried to mimic him.

“How can you bend two things?  I wanna do that!”

“Sadly I’m the only one who can do that.”  Keith got on her level to tell her. She looks down and kicks at a rock sadly.  “I’m the only one who can master all four elements.”

“Why?”  She asks.

“Because.”  Keith said. “Come on, I’ll show you another trick.”

“What?”  She asks in excitement.  Loving the reaction Keith got in a jumping position and launched himself in the sky.  The girl claps in joy as he flew up then slowly came back down. He looks up and back at her.

“How high did I go?”

“I dunno, I couldn’t see you.”  She admits, Keith smiles and looks up.

“Huh.  That’s a new record.”  The two smiled and laughed, it was a good day.  However Keith couldn’t stay, he had to keep moving so he wouldn’t get caught by the Fire Nation.  He sat down on the ground and began to draw. The girl sat next to him.

“What are you doing?”  She asks. He stops what he was doing and shows her all his drawings.  She claps and wanted to keep looking, Keith held up a finger to say wait and he went back to drawing.  When he was done, he tore the paper out and hands it to her. A drawing of her, she squeals and takes the drawing.  “Thank you Mister.” She says happily. Keith nods and pats her head.

“It was nice to play with you.”  He stood up and left. “Goodbye.”

“Bye bye!”  She waves and ran off to find her parents.  Keith sighs and went into the wilderness outside of the forest.  It felt nice to talk to someone, Keith didn’t realize he was being more social.  Which is a good thing, now he can talk to strangers more comfortably.

* * *

Shiro and Lance kept looking around, they’ve been at it for hours.  Lance kind of gave up, Shiro kept telling him to not give up. Lance pouts and kept looking, his voice is raw due to shouting so much.  So he stopped shouting, but he kept looking.

Everything seems calm till Shiro sees a fire nearby.  Lance sees it and grabs Shiro and points at it. He tries pushing the excited boy off of him.

“I-I see it Lance.  Stop shaking me.” He scolds.

“But Keith could be there!”  Lance sounded very excited, Shiro nods.

“Black, head towards the flame!”  Shiro commands. Black made a low noise and heads to the flames, excited to see if Keith was there.

They made it and landed, Shiro hops down and helps Lance down.  It didn’t take long to hear panicking and fires being made, something told them Keith wasn’t there.

“I will not ask again!  Where did he go?!” Someone shouts, Shiro recognized the voice.  He grabs his staff and runs towards the voice.

“Lance, grab your boomerang!”

“R-Right.”  Lance nods. He puts it on his strap and runs with Shiro.  They rounded the corner and saw Lotor shouting at the villagers.  Shiro growls in anger and sends a blast of air to knock him down. Lotor flew off his feet, he got up and points.

“You!  Air Nomad!”  He snaps, Shiro held his staff in a fighting position.  Lance grabs his boomerang and waits to throw. “Where is he?!”

“He’s not with us!  Leave this village now!”  Shiro commands. Lotor raised an eyebrow at Shiro.  Wondering why they didn’t have Keith, or were they protecting him?

“I’m not leaving till someone tells me where the Avatar went.”  He says. Lance points his boomerang at him.

“What do you want with Keith?”  He asks in a cold voice. Shiro just realized that Lance had never met Lotor before.  So this is all so new to him.

“Oh you’re new.”  Lotor said. “Who are you?  A pathetic boy who can’t even bend?”  Lance’s eyes grew in size, fury behind those cerulean eyes.  “Why would the Avatar bother with a Water Nomad if they can’t even waterbend?”  He asks. Lance threw his boomerang at him in anger. Lotor dodges it, Ezor and Zethrid watch it fly off.

Lotor smirks at Lance, who didn’t change his facial expression.  Shiro kept Lance back so he didn’t get hurt. Lotor walks towards them, Zethrid and Ezor watch the boomerang come back and knock Lotor in the back of the head.  He held his hand and glares at Lance, who runs up to the boomerang. Shiro knocks them all back with an airblast so Lance could get his weapon.

As soon as he picked it up Ezor and Acxa run at him.  Acxa firebends, Lance dodges it. That was enough of a distraction for Ezor to come at him.  She knocks him down and got a good look at his face, her eyes lit up.

“Oooh~  You’re so cute!”  She squeals, Lance gave a confused look and looked back and forth.

“Thanks?”  He got his legs under her and kicks her stomach hard to get her off.  She lands on her back, quickly recovered with a smile.

“And strong too!”

“Ezor don’t go falling for the enemy!”  Acxa scolds as she threw a knife at Lance.  The poor boy jumps away and threw his boomerang again, knocking into Acxa.  Lance quickly runs up and picks up his weapon again, blocking Ezor’s punched with his arm.

She giggles and firebends at him, he felt how hot her fire was.  Keith had firebend at him before and yes it hurt. But this? This was so much worse.  He looks at it, blue fire.

Did that have something to do with why it burns so much?  He was too distracted that Ezor flipped him on his back.

“Can we take him too?”  She asks Lotor, he glares at her and shook his head.  She pouts and held onto Lance like a doll. He elbows her hard and started to hold of Acxa again, Ezor tries to help.  “Don’t hurt him too badly Acxa.”

“You can’t be serious!”  She snaps.

Meanwhile Shiro had to deal with Zethrid and Narti.  Zethrid wasn’t a problem, the problem was Narti. She was too quick and quiet.  The fact that all these girls can bend made this hard.

He swings his staff at them, Narti hops on his staff and made him unbalanced giving Zethrid a chance to ram into him.  Shiro caught himself with air and made an airscooter to quickly go around them. Zethrid tried to catch him, Narti was getting dizzy due to all the noise.  Shiro stops and airpunched Zethrid in the gut. She went flying into a building and destroyed it.

Narti quickly looks over at the source of the punch and tried to figure out where Shiro went.  She couldn’t hear him, he was way too quiet, or the air around her just didn’t settle. Shiro trips her and sent her flying at a building.

Lotor was watching as his generals were losing to an Air Nomad and a non bender.  Not their proudest moment. As he groans he was pushed to the ground by Lance who was trying to get some distance from Acxa and Ezor.

“Move it Ugly!”  Lance snaps and threw his boomerang.  Acxa and Ezor both accidentally stepped on Lotor.  He electrocutes whoever was on him, Lance yelps and jumps off his head as soon as he was shocked, the girls weren’t so lucky.

He got up and glares at them, only to get hit with the boomerang again.  He lost it, throwing the weapon at Lance, who caught it and winks at him.

“Thanks!”  He says and kept running, Lotor grew so upset he started lightning bending at Lance.  He shrieks and dodged it. “Did I do something wrong- GAH!” He kept running. Lotor was trying to catch Lance but he was dead set on not getting electricuted.

Shiro saw the mess Lance was in and went towards Acxa and Ezor who were still recovering from their leaders attack.  He sends them flying with an aiblast up and pushed them both into Lotor. The three fell over and Lotor fainted.

Zethrid got up with a groan, she saw she was the only one still standing.

“Aw shit.”  She grabs her commerads and ran to their little tank.  “You win this round! We’ll be back, and we’ll have the Avatar!”  She snaps. Shiro points his staff at her, telling her to leave that moment.  She did and the village grew quiet.

They all looked at Shiro and Lance, like they saved them from a cruel fate.  Both boys look for any sign of Keith, nothing. Not a single thing. The villagers thanked them, they accepted the thanks and went back to Black disappointed.  Only to spot a little girl looking at the bison and petting him, Shiro runs up to her confused.

“Um… can we help you?”  He asks, she looks up at him and points at the bison.

“Mr. Firebender drew a creature like this.”  She says, both of them froze. “He drew a creature like this.”

“W-Wait, did you say a firebender drew an air bison?!”  Shiro asks, the girl nods and held up her drawing.

“He drew me too.”  She said. Lance looks at it and nods.

“No doubt about it, it’s definitely him.”  He told Shiro and got on the girls level. “Can you tell us where he went?”  He asks her sweetly. She points in the direction near the mountains. Lance nods and thanks the girl before hopping on Black, Shiro right behind him.  They wave the girl goodbye and flew off.

The sky was turning dark, and not because it was nightfall.  Lance looks at the clouds and sighs.

“We better find him soon, it’s gonna storm.”

“We’ll find him Lance, don’t worry.”

* * *

It down poured all over the mountain side.  Keith held himself while wrapped in his blanket as he walked through it.  The blanket offered no added warmth and made him more cold and tired. He looks around for any type of shelter.  He found a cave nearby and quickly goes in.

He sat down and tried lighting a fire with firebending.  The cave was too damp and no wood to help, Keith was stuck in the cold cave by himself with his only source of warmth was a damp blanket.  This is not his day.

He shivers and curls up in a tight ball to warm himself up.  He slowly felt exhaustion take over his body. He falls asleep in the cold cave, wishing something could warm him up.

Then something touches his face, he slowly opens his violet eyes and sees he’s not in a cave, but in a desert area with one little lake.  The place might look very plain and ugly… but Keith couldn’t help but think the place looked rather beautiful.

He stops to admire the place, it was warm, like a desert paradise.

“So… we finally meet.”  He heard someone behind him.  He jumps and quickly turns to see a woman facing him.

She had pinkish brunette hair that was in low pigtails.  She had slanted brown eyes and wore a green Earth Kingdom dress.  All in all she was a pretty woman.

“Hello Keith, took you long enough.”

“Who… who are you?”  He asks, the woman smiles at him.

“I am Trigel.”

“Trigel?”  Keith froze… he couldn’t believe it, he’s talking to his predecessor.  Trigel walks up to him and pats his shoulder. “How are we talking?”

“The solstice.  It’s when the Spirit World and your world are connected.”  She tells him. “I’m am very impressed Keith, you’ve known of your potential for a short amount of time and you’ve already mastered fire and air.  You only have two more to go.” She sounded like an excited mother.

Keith looks down and messes with his sleeve, Trigel could sense his turmoil.

“What’s wrong?  Aren’t you happy?”

“No… not really.”  Keith admits. Trigel sits, motioning Keith to follow.  He sat in front of her and thought of what to say. “I’m… scared.”

“Of what?”

“Of being the Avatar.  Being the one who stops this war.”  He says, Trigel wasn’t getting it. She looked so confused, Keith held his arms out in frustration.  “Look at me! You think anyone is going to trust a firebender after what this horrid war has done?!”

“No one said being the Avatar would be easy.”  Trigel admits. “You think I had it easy, I was brought into that war at a young age.”  She told him. “This war took my husband from me, and that horrible ruler killed my son in front of my eyes.  I never want to see that image again.” Her words hit Keith hard, he shook his head. Not knowing how to respond to her.

Trigel sighs and looks over at the mountains in the distance, thinking of what to say.

“I came to tell you about something that can aid you on your quest.”

“What is that?”  Keith asks.

“Summer will be upon us soon.  A hundred years ago, when Avatar Sorri was alive, a comet came by.  The Fire Nation felt great power from it, it enhances their powers, that comet will come again after the summer is over.  I have a feeling Zarkon will take that comets power and use it to conquer the world.”

“What?!”  Keith panics.  “What am I supposed to do?!”  He asks. Trigel looks at him with determination.

“Master the other elements of course.  You only have two left. However you must master them before summer is over.”

“That’s impossible!”  Keith admits. “I can’t do that!  I just got airbending down!”

“Keith.”  Trigel stops him from his rant.  “I wouldn’t tell you that if I didn’t believe in you.  I know you can do it.” She smiles at him. “And I will be here to aid you, whenever you need me.”

“But I still can’t-”

“I think our time is up.  I can feel someone coming towards your body.”

“Wait Trigel!”  Keith tried to get her attention.

“Good luck Keith.”  She says. “The world is counting on you.”

* * *

Keith’s eyes snap open as he sees Shiro looking right at him.  He blinks a bit, slightly confused and disoriented.

“Shiro?  What are you-?”  Before he can ask, Shiro hug him.  Keith had no clue how to react, also how these guys found him in a day.  Lance came up and snaps at him.

“How could you do this to us?!  I thought something came and took you away, Shiro and I were worried sick!”  He sounded like he was about to cry. “Why did you run away?!”

Keith just looks at him with sad yet still very confused eyes.

“I can do this by myself.”

“And leave us to worry about you?!”  Lance asks, Shiro was trying to calm him down.  Keith raised an eyebrow and pouts.

“Please.  The only reason you two cared about me is because I’m the Avatar.  You wouldn’t care about me if I was still a crummy orphan.” As soon as he said that Lance slaps him in the face.  “OW!”

Before he can say anything else Lance hugged him, burying his face in his shoulders.

“You know that’s not true.”  He whimpers. “We came looking for you because you’re our friend.”  Keith stood there, too stunned to move. Shiro came in and wraps his arms around both of them.

“Keith, I’ve been your friend since the first day we met.  Before we knew you were the Avatar.” He says. “We weren’t worried about the Avatar, we were worried about Keith, you.”

Keith didn’t want to cry, he didn’t want to cry over how mushy and sweet this was.  But fuck his eyes were betraying him, as well as his heart. They came for him, they looked for him cause they cared about him.

No one has ever cared about him like this before.  Keith never had a family after he lost his parents.  Now he has two people in his life that would risk so much to keep him safe.  Who actually love him for him.

He cries in the group hug.  Not wanting anyone but them to see him in this state, no one else will know he cried.  Or know that he’s a sensitive mess who desperately needs affection.

The group left the cave after that mess, Keith was curled up in another blanket and let his dry on Black’s back.  He was laying on his side and watched the clouds go as the stars show. Lance flops on Keith’s side and rests his eyes.

“Team Keith is back together.”  He mumbles. Keith raised an eyebrow at him.

“Team Keith?”

“Yeah… you’re the Avatar.”  He explains. “Team Avatar, that’s us.  You’re our Avatar… so Team Keith.” He yawns and curls into Keith’s side.  Keith chuckles at that weird explanation.

“I like Team Avatar better.”

“Team Keith.”  The other two chant.  Keith knew he wasn’t going to win this so he just ignores them and feels the breeze go through him, loving that he was up in the air again.  

Keith thinks about telling the two what Trigel told him.  But not tonight, no they’ve been through enough for one day.  He caused these two enough trouble, and it looks like they’ve gotten into some trouble of their own.  He’ll tell them some other time, for now he’ll let them rest.


	10. The Great Divide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I held this off... sorry. I was just tired and enjoying spring break before I have to go back to work. I don't like my job very much and I wanted to relax and sleep in my bed. Enjoy the chapter.

The group walks through a canyon on foot, some were more against the idea than others.  But Black was tired and he was a part of Team Keith too so he deserves a say. Lance kept picking up rocks and throwing them off the edge, seeing how far he can throw.  Keith picks one up and threw it farther. Lance pouts at him while the other smirks in joy.

“No one likes you.”

“Whatever.”  Keith says as they keep walking, Shiro picks a rock up and throws it the farthest.  “No one likes you.”

“Sound familiar?”  Shiro asks, that got Lance to chuckle.  Keith pouts and hops on Black, he didn’t want to be near Shiro at the moment.  Lance walks up next to Shiro to ask where the heck they were going.

“Where are we going?”

“North?”

“I know that, but we’ve been in the Earth Kingdom for days.”  He says. “When are we going to fly to the north?”

“Black can only take so much.”  Shiro says. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you north and Keith can learn waterbending.”  Keith peeks down at them, looking at the ground below him. He sees the canyon and got bored with the sight.

“Blah, there’s nothing to do out here.”  He comments, Lance agrees, Shiro just looks up at him.

“How about you draw, with how detailed yours are it might take some time off.”

“I draw when something catches my eye.  Nothing catches my eye out here, it’s all rocks and boring stuff.”  Keith flops back down on the bison and groans his displeasure. Shiro rolls his eyes at the overdramatic teen.

The group tried crossing the canyon when someone stopped them, an earthbender.  He wouldn’t let them cross the canyon. The group was honestly confused by his odd rule of not letting them pass.

“You need a guide to pass the Great Divide!”  He says. Shiro gave a wide eyed look while the others were confused.

“Shiro, what’s the Great Divide?”  Lance asks, Shiro looks down at him.

“It’s the world's largest canyon.”  Shiro said. “Didn’t think we’d arrive here, nor did I think you needed a guide.”  He sounded annoyed. The man kept telling the group why they needed a guide. 

“I’ll take care of this.”  Keith says as he lit his hand on fire.  Shiro quickly looks over and shrieks.

“No no!  We aren’t killing him!”  Shiro says, he sees the man was in the fetal position.  Lance walks over to help the man while Shiro was trying to subdue Keith.

“It’s okay, he won’t hurt anyone.”  Lance said. “In fact he will seize his firebending at once.”  His voice dropped in a commanding tone, Keith just stares him down.  After the battle of stares Keith drops his hand and pouts, point for Lance. 

“You were saying something about a guide?”  Shiro asks.

“Yes, I am the one who guides people through the Great Divide.”  He says proudly. “In fact I am guiding another group of people, but I’m sure three more wouldn’t be bad.”  The guide says. “What are your names?”

“I’m Shiro, the one with the fire is Keith and this one here is Lance.”  He introduces them.

“Hello.”  Lance waves sweetly.  Keith just salutes at the man with a rather dull expression.  The guide nods. 

“Nice to meet such a… colorful group.”  He leads them to the others, a tribe of people wearing white and gold robes.  They looked a little fancy to be out in the middle of a canyon. One man had to ask.

“Who are they?”

“Other travelers.”  The guide said. Shiro held his arm up in peace.

“We mean no harm, we just want to get through.”  He says, the man looks at the team.

“An Air Nomad traveling with a Water Tribesman and a-”  They look at Keith, their expressions were sick and confused.  He clicks his tongue and lays back on Black. Shiro sighs and says nothing, Lance however doesn’t stay quiet.

“So it’s okay if we travel with you?”  He asks. They glare at the spot the firebender once was.

“As long as that Fire Nation freak tries nothing.”  He says and walks back to his tribe. The three slowly look at the guide, wondering if they should really travel with these guys.

“Ah… the Gan Jin tribe is very… how do you put it?”

“Rude.”  Keith said.

“Well yes but-”

“No buts about it, they are pretty rude.”  Shiro comments.

“I’ll say.”  Lance adds on.  The guide said nothing else, he just left them to talk amongst themselves.

“Alright, we’re ready to leave.”  He tells everyone.

“HOLD IT!”  They heard a woman shout, everyone looks over to see a group of people dressed in fur and looked quite filthy compared to the Gan Jin tribe.  The woman who shouts points her weapon at the guide. “You’ll be leading the Zhang tribe through the canyon.” She says.

The guide looked puzzled but nods in agreement.  The leader of the Gan Jin tribe however refused to go with them.

“They can find another guide!  They cannot travel with us!” He shouts, the leader of the Zhang tribe noticed the others and snapped.

“ _ You _ can find another guide!  My people need a new place to stay!”

“So do mine!  Take your filthy people somewhere else!”  They kept arguing back and forth, throwing insults at one another.  The team just watches.

“Keith maybe you should step in.”

“Nah, I’d make it worse.”  He says. Shiro sighs and decided to help the guide with an idea.  It would bring peace to the two groups and maybe stop the arguing.

“Keith, get down.”

“What?!”

“Off Black, I have an idea.”  He says, Keith groans and gets off.  He stood next to Lance and glares at Shiro.  Lance pats Keith’s back and watches Shiro speak to the leaders of the two tribes.  Then a few people began to crawl on top of Black, all sick and elderly, and Keith swore he saw a pregnant woman hop on.

Black flew off, Shiro walks over and smiles at the two boys.

“I made a temporary treaty, I offer Black to take their sick and elderly while we all walk together.”

“Nice thinking Shiro.”  Lance comments, Keith looks over at the two tribes, they glared at him.  He held his arm and looked down.

“I-I’m gonna stay a step behind.”  Keith says. “Just so they don’t get to suspicious of me.”  Both Shiro and Lance just look at him with a raised eyebrow.  Shiro spoke up and pats Keith’s shoulder.

“Keith, if you want people to start trusting you, you’re going to have to stop hiding and come out of this safe bubble you isolate yourself in.”

“I know, but now isn’t the time for that.  Those two tribes clearly have it out for each other, I don’t want to make my presence worse.”  He says. As awful as it sounds, Keith did have a point. They agreed and started walking with the two tribes.

“Just stay close to us, okay?  Don’t go to far.” Shiro tells him, Keith smiles and nods.

* * *

The guide earthbends a few rocks away, everyone slowly follows behind.  Keith observes how the guide moves his body to earthbend. Sure he still has to master water but it wouldn’t hurt to see how earthbenders move.  He wonders how a waterbender moves…

“Hey Lance?”  He got Lance’s attention, he looks over at him.  “You’ve seen a waterbender before… right?”

“Uh huh.”  Lance nods and moved closer to him so they could talk.

“How… how do they move?”  He asks, it sounded really stupid and Lance’s face made it worse.

“How do they move?”

“Y-Yeah.”  Keith’s cheeks tinted pink.  Lance shrugs.

“I can’t bend so I don’t know.”  He says. Keith pouts, he wanted an answer and Lance has seen a waterbender unlike him.

“Well how did their body move?”

“Um… hard to explain.”  Lance said. “Again I don’t know.  The bender was someone I didn’t know well so I’ve barely saw them.”  Keith just looks down with a sour look. He folds his arms across his chest and kicks at the rocks.  “We’ll be up north soon. Just wait.”

Keith just rolls his eyes, Lance decides to walk up to Shiro leaving Keith alone in the back again. The guide closes off the path so fire soldiers can’t follow them.  It didn’t change the other tribes mindset that a firebender was with them, they kept looking back at him with cold looks. Keith just sighs, if only they knew who he really was.

Not going to tell them though.  They can hate him for all he cares, in the end he’ll be the one who will save them.  Then they’ll treat him like a normal human being, either that or a hero. He’ll settle for normal person, cause being treated like a monster you’ll settle for anything better.  He doesn’t want anyone to call him a hero.

“Hey Shiro!  Watch this!” Lance got Shiro’s attention like an excited child.  He held his arms up and tried doing a handstand. He couldn’t do it at all and he flopped on his stomach with a loud ‘oof’.  Shiro covers his mouth to muffle his laughter, Keith felt a smile creep on his face.

Okay, he wouldn’t mind being called a hero if Lance was the one calling him that.  He already admits to protecting him, until they get him to the north. Then he’ll be safe with others like him.

“How dare you laugh at me.”  Lance whines to Shiro. The adult chuckles and kept walking with the guide member and the two tribes.

The guide finally stops them.

“Okay, we’re travelling in canyon crawler territory.  If you have food I suggest you eat it now. Those creatures can smell your food!”  He says. The team looks at one another, all of their stuff was on Black. Keith even left his little bag on the bison so they had nothing.

Lance and Shiro watched the two tribes eat while Keith was looking around at the scenery.  The Gan Jin tribe took out pretty bowls of food and chopsticks, eating properly. While the Zhang took out meat legs and other body parts and ate like animals.  Both boys look at each other then back at the tribes.

“Keith come take a look at this.”  Shiro says, he looks over.

“What the-?”

“Yeah, it’s strange isn’t it.”

“Who carries full animals and fancy bowls?”  He asks. The other two nod in agreement. They didn’t judge and instead just waited for the two tribes to finish.  They all continued down the long path.

The guide waits for them to go by before he earthbends a rock out of the way and blocks the path again.  As they walked down something crawls at them from behind. Keith sees it and freaks out, the creature looked ugly.  He runs up and clings to Shiro.

“What is that?!”  He asks as it came at them, Shiro jumps and screams.

“CANYON CRAWLER!”  Everyone heard that and freaked out, the guide earthbends at the canyon crawler.  It dodges and crawls up at the large group.

Lance grabs his boomerang and throws it at the crawler, it hits and the creature runs around frantically.  It lunges at the nearest person it saw, which was the guide. It tackled him and attacked, Shiro and Keith both quickly airbend the creature off.  Lance grabs his weapon and runs towards the guide.

Keith and Shiro both deal with the canyon crawler.  It runs at them, Shiro uses his staff to knock it off its feet.  Keith firebends at the creature face, the canyon crawler flees after it’s face got burnt off.

They watched it run away, Lance helps the man sit up.

“You okay?”  He asks, the man looks at Lance.

“I-I’m fine.”  He tried getting up, he grunts in pain and lays back down.  Lance looks at him with concern, he looks all over his body and notices his arms didn’t look right.

“Oh no…”  Lance grabs the guides arm, he hisses in pain.  “You broke your arm. Both of them from the looks of it.”  He says, the guide gave Lance a pitiful look.

“No… if my arms are broken then I cannot earthbend.”  He says. Lance didn’t know what to say to the man. “You’re from the Water Tribe right?  Can’t you heal me?” He asks, Lance shook his head.

“I’m sorry.”  Lance said quietly.  He let him lie down and walks up to his friends.

Shiro looks at his friends and sighs.  They had no guide to help them, and no one earthbender to get them through.  He saw the two tribes started arguing again.

“Now we’ll never get through!  This is all your fault!”

“No it’s all yours!  You brutes could’ve taken it out!”

“We were in a panic!”

“Not our problem!”  They kept at it, the three look in disappointment.  They walk up to them and tried to make peace.

“Alright we see that this situation is bad.  However we still need to get through.”

“I am not travelling with these horrid people!”  The leader of the Zhang tribe shouts. The Gan Jin leader nods in agreement.

“Same here, I’d rather risk it with the firebender there.”  He snaps, Keith felt uncomfortable. He didn’t want to be dragged in this mess.

Lance walks up to Shiro and tugs at his shawl.

“What are we gonna do?”  He asks, Shiro shrugs. He’s the peaceful type who rather work things through in a kind manner and hopefully something will work out or people put up with it.  These guys won’t compromise. Lance felt Shiro was out of ideas.

“I have an idea.”  Keith spoke up, they both look at him.  Shiro was willing to listen to anyone at this point.  “We split them up. One tribe goes that way, the other goes that way.”  Keith points at the two directions. “Then we’ll meet up on the other side.”

“Okay, that’s it?”  Shiro asks, wanting there to be more.  Keith smiles proudly, there was more to his plan and he sure was excited to share it.

“Well we want these two to stop fighting.  So one of you goes with the Zhang and the other goes with the Gan Jin.  Then you guys can find out what happened and we can find out how to end their feud.”  He says. Shiro nods, he was impressed with Keith’s idea. It could work, he gave Keith a pat on the shoulder and a proud smile.

“Great idea Keith, we can try it.”  He says, Keith looked like a kid who just got praised by their parents.  His eyes were practically sparkling.

“Dibs on going with the Zhang!”  Lance shouts.

“Aw!”  Shiro groans.  He did not want to go with the judgy people.  They told the two tribes their plan, they agreed to it.  Not only were they separating but Keith wasn’t going with any of them.

Shiro hands Keith his staff and walks with the Gan Jin, Lance runs up and with the Zhang.  He waves them off, all three wishing the other safe travels and thus Keith was alone with the guide.  He looks at him, wondering what to do about him.

* * *

Shiro walks with the leader as they watch the sun fade, the leader is not one to push conversation, Shiro felt awkward walking with him as night came by.  Well the day has gone by slowly. Now he was separated from his friends and with strangers, he hopes Keith and Lance are safe. Shiro now realizes he’s like a worried parent, spirits those two are probably not good for his health.

Soon the sky changes and they set up their camp site.  Shiro notices the tribe setting the tarps up. When he asked why they were doing that the leader responds with ‘you can never be too careful’.  Which Shiro agreed with, ever since meeting Keith that’s been his life motto.

They all sat near a fire and pulled out food, Shiro’s eyes grew.  He points at what the leader was holding.

“You brought food against the guide’s orders?!”

“We should not go hungry, you understand, right Air Nomad?”  He asks, Shiro sighs. He did make a point but still the guide told them not to… no wonder that Canyon Crawler came out and attacked.

They offered a bowl of rice and noodles to Shiro, he hasn’t eaten since that morning so he took it happily.  At least they share the same diet. Later that night he asked.

“So what’s up with you and the Zhang tribe?”  He asks. The Gan Jin look over in disgust but answered Shiro, he was a respectable monk.

“Long ago our tribals forefather named Jin Wei was given the job to take the sacred crystal orb from the east to the west gate as a part of redemption.  As he neared the western gate, a thief from the Zhang tribe who by the name of Wei Jin, attacked him and stole the orb out of greed.” The tribe leader was done.

Shiro nods in understanding, that’s certainly a reason to hate someone, but for how long?  Shiro doesn’t know how long this feud has been going on but he might’ve found a way to patch things up.

* * *

Lance walks next to the leader of the Zhang tribe.  Lance looks at her, she was a rough woman with a lot of muscle, definitely not his type.  He never thought women could look that manly. He’d rather marry a beautiful woman with long hair and weren’t the size of a mother bear.

She noticed his staring and didn’t seem to mind it, she gave him a smile and kept walking.  Lance couldn’t help but smile back.

“You have a beautiful smile.”  He comments, she looks back at him and pokes his head with a chuckle.

“Don’t waste your flattery on me boy.”  She says, sounding shy. Okay Lance takes back some of what he thought about her, she can be kind of adorable.  But she was way too old for him.

They set up camp and Lance looks at the moon, they used their tarps as blankets and other things.

“Why are we using them like that?  Don’t tarps get set up over our heads?”

“It’s the dry season boy, it ain’t gonna rain.”  She comments, Lance nods. He totally doesn’t mind that.

“Smart thinking.”  He says, she ruffles his hair and sets up the fire.  Lance kept looking at the moon, feeling safer with it’s presence.  He notices the Zhang pulling food out and starting to eat or cooking it over the fire.  “H-Hey what the heck?!”

They looked at him while he freaked out.  They brought food in, even after the guide said not to do that.

“So this is the reason the Canyon Crawler attacked!”  He comments, the tribe rolls their eyes.

“Boy you’re smart, a real survivor.  I can tell.” The leader says, pointing a meat leg at Lance.  He nods and looks at her shyly. He survived death so you could consider him a survivor.  “How are we gonna live if we’re hungry?” She asks him.

“Well… you make a good point.”  But still, they lead the Canyon Crawler out and attacked the guide.  Now they’re separated, he looks at the moon wanting an answer. Or at least tell him that his friends are okay, especially Keith who was all alone.

The tribe leader hands Lance a leg, he takes and eats it like a starved man.  Hasn’t eaten since morning and also he doesn’t get as much meat as he’d like. The Zhang leader laughs and pats his head.

“You fit in well with us!  Just way prettier than all of us here.”  She comments, Lance smiles, he likes being called pretty.  Sue him, he’s been called pretty by his family all the time so he’s use to it.

“Thanks.”  He says as he covers his mouth.  After a while he asks the question.  “So why do you hate the Gan Jin tribe?”  The leader looks at Lance and decided to share the story.

“Our ancestor Wei Jin found the Gan Jin’s ancestor Jin Wei passed out near the western gate.  He helped him and Jin Wei told him he was doing a redemption ritual. He refused Wei Jin’s help and instead told him to take the orb back to his people.  Upon arrival the Gan Jin arrested Wei Jin for stealing the orb and was imprisoned for twenty years.” She says. “We will not forgive them for that.”

It took a bit for Lance to respond, the names were messing with him.  Finally he nods and agrees with them. That’s horrible, someone trying to help then getting treated like a villain.  Reminds him of a certain someone. Before he went to sleep he looks at the moon, hoping for an answer.

* * *

Keith was travelling a seperate route with the guide.  He’s been flying around, carrying the heavy man with his legs and found a way to bound his arms to help them heal.  He sat in the quiet and thought about what to do. They won’t listen to anyone, he wouldn’t make a difference.

“Young man.”  He heard the guide talk to him.  He looks over and back at the sky.

“Go back to sleep sir, everything will be fine.”  He says, the guide smiles at him.

“You’re the Avatar, aren’t you?”  He asks with a voice full of hope.  Keith doesn’t respond, he just looks at the man.  Purple eyes glowing in the moonlight. “Amazing… I never thought I’d see the Avatar in person.  Such a kind man, you even helped with my arms. You… you’re a miracle.”

“Just go back to sleep.”  He says quietly, looking back at the stars.  The guide closes his eyes and rests.

“If anyone can stop this feud it’s you.”  He says before he went to sleep. Keith sighs and kept staring at the sky, oh spirits help him.

* * *

The group met up on the other side of the canyon, Lance runs to Shiro and hugs him.  Happy to see his friend again. Shiro looks around, no sign of Keith anywhere.

“Oh where is he?”  He asks impatiently.

“He’ll be here.”  Lance says, Shiro raised an eyebrow at Lance.

“I know you have total confidence in him, but I still worry.”  Shiro says, Lance gave Shiro a small smile and looks at him.

“Come on Shiro, he’s the Avatar.  Like Kolivan said, he can do everything.”

“Can he get pregnant?”  He asks with a smile, Lance’s fades and smacks Shiro hard.  The older man laughs and takes the tribesman’s abuse.

Keith flies in with the guide, the two land and Keith puts the staff’s wings away.  Lance runs up and hugs him, Shiro came up and rubs his head.

“Glad to see you’re safe.”

“Same for you two.”  Keith responds. “So did you guys figure out what’s up?”  He asks, Lance lets go and stood next to Shiro and both nod.  Keith smiles and waits for them to say their piece. Shiro starts.

“So the Zhang’s forefather robbed Jin Wei of their crystal orb while he was doing a trial out of greed.”  He says, Lance just gave him a confused look.

“No, that’s not what happened.”  Lance said, Shiro looks at him.

“What are you talking about?”  Shiro asks.

“Wei Jin was helping Jin Wei by returning the crystal.  It was Jin Wei’s request, the Gan Jin wrongfully arrested him.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard.”

“Well of course they’d lie to you!  They arrested an innocent man!” Lance and Shiro started fighting.  They kept going back and forth, the tribes started too. Upset that the others made wrongful accusations.  Keith’s eye twitched, he folds his arms across his chest and rests his eyes so they wouldn’t twitch. Didn’t stop the annoyed face he made, him growing more and more tense.

“ENOUGH OF THIS!”  He shouts. He airbends both tribes away from each other, food spilling from both people.  Keith’s eyes grew in size. “What is this?” He asks. “I cannot believe you both! You disobeyed the guide!  You guys lead the crawler to attack!” He looks over at his friends.

“Did you guys know about this?”  They looked away from him. “Unbelievable!”  He snaps. “You guys could go a day! I am doing that, I’m fine!”  As soon as he spoke his stomach growled, loud enough for everyone to hear.  He whimpers a bit but kept his angered face.

While he kept scolding a herd of canyon crawlers rush out, attracted by the food.  Keith was even more annoyed.

“Alright everyone, let’s settle this and work together so we don’t die!”  He snaps. “Shiro you help, Lance you get the guide to safety.” They both nod and ran to where they needed to go.  Lance helps the guide master up and hid with him near a rock formation near a puddle, the guide drinks it like his life depended on it.  Lance stayed on lookout in case a crawler came out, hand on boomerang, ready to attack.

Keith and Shiro both attacked a crawler, Keith jumps on it and rides it near the food pile.  He looks at Shiro.

“Shiro, grab a bag!  Put it over the crawler’s mouth!”

“I have to get near that thing?”

“Hey I’m on the damn thing!  You won’t have to touch it!” He snaps, Shiro shivers at touching the thing but he went along with Keith’s idea.  He quickly grabs the bag and in a swift movement he ties the bag around it’s mouth. The crawler crawls away. The two tribes watch them and nod.

They all worked together and did the same strategy the Avatar did.  The crawlers all scuttled away, Keith looks at everyone.

“Did we get all of them?”  He asks. Just then a crawler flies by, it got flung in the air.  It follows it’s fellow crawlers and scuttles away. Keith and Shiro were stunned, they walk towards the place the crawler came from.

They found both Lance and the guide sitting there, Lance huddled close to the guide.  Both their eyes were wide, Lance slowly looks at them.

“Uh… It got close.”  He says. Keith helps the guide up, Lance stood and clung to Shiro.  He pats Lance’s head, trying to calm him down. Keith smiles, the two made up and all it took was a charging herd of Canyon Crawlers.  The tribes looked at each other.

“You… you guys are pretty capable fighters.”  The Zhang leader says.

“And for brutes you fight with much elegance.”  He says. “But I still won’t forgive you for what Wei Jin did to our forefather!”

“Likewise!  We tried to help Jin Wei and your people betrayed ours.”

“Wait!  What were those names again?”  Keith asks, the two repeated the names.  “Jin Wei and Wei Jin… sounds familiar.” He put a finger to his chin and taps.  “Where did I hear that name?” He snaps his fingers.

“Oh I know.”  He says. “They knew one of my past lives.  Forgot which one though…”

“What are you spouting on about firebender?”  The Gan Jin leader asks. Keith looks at him with a smug smile.

“Oh I thought you people noticed, I’m the Avatar.”  He says, they stood back shocked. They didn’t believe him, his friends smile and nod.  He wasn’t lying. “So I know the real story of what happened to your forefathers.”

“Jin Wei and Wei Jin were the sons of some very lazy and uncreative parents.  This whole crystal thing is made up. Jin Wei was playing with a ball, his brother took it so he could play and he was put in time out.  That’s how this silly feud started.” He says, the two tribes looked dumbfounded.

Scratch that, everyone was surprised to hear this.  The two tribe leaders looked at each other.

“All this hatred over a ball?”  The Zhang leader asks, the Gan Jin sighs.

“How pathetic.”  He says, he held his hand out.  “Let us cross into the new land together, as friends.”

“Agreed.”  She shook his hand.  Black comes down with the others.  Shiro sees Black and runs to him.

“Buddy!”  He buries his face in the bisons fur.  “I’ve missed you!” Black made a low noise in happiness.  He was glad to see his family again. Keith smiles at them and watches everyone walk together in the new land.  The guide grabs Lance’s hands and shakes them.

“You take care now young man.”  He says, Lance smiles and nods. “And both of you take good care of the Avatar.”

“Okay okay.”  Lance laughs. “Farewell.”  He waves him off. The group meets up around Black.  “Wow I can’t believe all of that was over a ball.”

“Yeah, and we even fought over who was right.”  Shiro laughs. “I suppose I owe you an apology Lance, I shouldn’t have gotten caught up in all this drama.”  Lance smiles and hugs him tightly.

“I’m sorry too!”  He squeaks. Shiro laughs and hugs the younger boy.

“You are very lovey today.”

“I just missed being with you guys.  You feel like a second family to me.”

“Same here.”  Shiro admits. “I’m sure Black feels the same way.”  He says, they both look at Keith. He looks down and shrugs, an adorable smile plastered on his face.

“I missed you guys too.  You two are literally the family I never had…”  He says, he looks back up and gave them a wider grin.  Lance aws and hugs him, Shiro joins in. The three laugh during the hug.

They hopped on Black and flew away.

“So who was the Avatar who knew the two kids?”  Shiro asks. Keith looks over at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“The two kids who fought over a ball.  Who was the Avatar who knew them?”

“Oh that… I made that up.”  He admits, Lance and Shiro stare at him in shock.

“You lied?!”  Lance asks.

“Hey it got them to stop fighting didn’t it?”  Keith defends himself. “I did the world a favor.”

“Way to be honest there Avatar.”  Shiro sighs. Keith gave the two a smile, he was still proud of himself.  He solved an issue in the world, he’s a good Avatar who told a lie about a probably serious issue.


	11. The Fortuneteller

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so tired and I feel like the small amount of alcohol I had is making me sick, never having an Angry Orchard again. I was trying to get this done earlier but I had work and then I had such a stressful day cause people annoy me, I swear typing this story is the biggest stress reliever.  
> Enjoy the chapter while I go pass out.

The group was hanging around near a river.  Lance smiles and puts his feet in the water while messing with something meanwhile Shiro watches the fish.  Keith smiles at the fish jumping out of the lake.

“Shiro can we catch some fish?”  He asks, Shiro shrugs.

“Knock yourself out, I think I have a fishing rod somewhere.”  He gestures his head towards their supplies, Keith walks over happily.

“Why do you have a fishing rod if you’re a vegetarian?”  He asks, Shiro chuckles.

“I sometimes helped people fish for food.”  He said, Keith made a gagged face.

“Dang, you’re too nice Shiro.”  Keith comments, he walks towards the river and just realized that there was no fishing line.  “What the heck?” He asks while looking at the rod. “Shiro, why does this fishing rod have no line?”

“Huh?”  Shiro walks up and stares at it.  “What happened to my rod?”

“All done!”  Lance shouts.  He held up a necklace with a few shiny rocks on it.  It was made with Shiro’s fishing line. He ties it around his neck and smiles at the two.  “Ta da! I made a good luck charm!”

Keith smiles while Shiro looked disappointed.

“Lance that was my fishing line.”  He says. Keith hands Shiro his rod and walks back to the supplies.  “You can’t do that to my stuff.”

“It’s not like you were using it anyways.”  Lance comments.

“We could still fish for you and Keith, you still eat meat.”

“Huh I guess you’re right.”  He looks up and thought about it.  “But it looks nice right?” He asks, Shiro groans.

“Yes you look so pretty Lance.”  Shiro said in a sarcastic tone. Lance pouts at Shiro, the older man just looks at Lance.  “What do you want me to say? I’m not interested in men like that.”

“Neither am I.  I still would like it if someone wasn’t so sarcastic with my looks.  I think I look good.”

“Yeah sure, can I have my line back?”

“No.”  He says.  Shiro just groans and walks back to Black.  They got ready to fly, Keith was absorbed in his journal  Drawing something, probably the river.

“Keith, come on.”

“Oh, sorry!”  He hops up. Lance looks over at him.

“Can I see what you drew?”

“No!”  He backs away and held his journal close.  Lance looked a little confused. “You know I hate showing my art to others.  It makes me uncomfortable.” He says quietly. Lance sighs and goes back up to Shiro.

“I’m not talking to you, you took my line.”  He says, Lance pouts and slinks back down. Everyone was against him, he couldn’t talk to anyone.  He crawls over to Keith and rests his head against his leg. Keith froze up in his spot. Lance looks up at him and shows his necklace.

“Do you think it’s pretty?”

“It’s-”  His voice cracked, he clears his throat.  “It’s okay… I guess.” He says, Lance chuckles a bit, thinking Keith’s voice crack was hilarious.  Keith was mentally hitting himself, he sounded stupid.

Lance didn’t know what Keith was so worried about, he looked upset.

“Keith I’m just teasing.”  He says. Shiro looks back, his face wasn’t kind at all.

“Yeah Keith, just listen to Lance, his voice sounds like it’s cracking all the time.”  He chuckles a bit, Lance looks over at him and pouts.

“You’ve got to be mean to me?”

“You took my fishing line.”

“Get over it.”

* * *

The group flies for a while until they heard a loud noise coming from below.  They fly down and see a platypus bear attacking. Keith freaks out and hid behind Shiro.

“What is that thing?!”

“A platypus bear.”  He said calmly. “You’ll be fine if you stay away from it and leave it al-”  Shiro stops when he sees the platypus bear attacking a man. The man looked pretty calm with it attacking him.  The man notices the team and waves at them with a big smile.

“Hello gentlemen.  Lovely day today, don’t you agree?”  He asks them while avoiding the platypus bear’s attacks.  “Sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Perfect day today.”  He says happily. Lance was staring at him in shock, Keith got Black to attack the platypus bear.  Black uses his hind legs to kick the bear, it lays an egg and runs away in fear.

Lance sees the egg and takes it happily, holding it with a big grin plastered on his face.  Shiro looks at the man who was still smiling like nothing was wrong. He looks back happily.

“So how is your day?”  He asks Shiro, he just raised an eyebrow at him.  Keith sat on Black and cocks his head to the side.

“Are you okay?  That animal attacked you and here you are, smiles and all.”  Keith said. Lance shows Keith the egg happily, he nods and looks back at the guy.

“Oh the fortuneteller Aunt Luxia told me that I was going to have a safe journey today.”  He said with a smile. Shiro gawks at him and points in the direction the platypus bear ran.

“You were getting attacked!  You were almost killed!” He says, the man kept smiling.

“But I wasn’t.”  He says. “Oh which reminds me.”  He hands Shiro a wrapped umbrella.  Lance takes it seeing as how Shiro wasn’t taking it.  “Aunt Luxia told me to give this to any traveler I come across.  Have a good day!”

Lance gives Keith the egg and held the umbrella up, opening it.  Shiro gave Lance a look, then it started to rain. Lance looks up while being the only one under the umbrella.  Shiro glares at Lance and at the sky. Lance offers the umbrella, Shiro didn’t want it.

“Stupid rain.”  He pouts. Lance shrugs.

“I have an umbrella.  Maybe that fortuneteller is the real deal.”  He says happily. Shiro rolls his eyes.

“Please, no one can predict the future.”  He says. “It’s been cloudy all day so it’ll rain all day.”  Just then the rain stopped, Shiro growls. “OH COME ON!” As he shouts Lance put the umbrella away.

“It was sunny earlier.”  Lance points out, Shiro signals him to shut up.  Lance squeaks and nods frantically. Keith was drenched like Shiro and was still holding the egg.  He crawls up on Black’s head to talk to them, his arms were slick due to the rain and dropped the egg right on Shiro’s head.  Lance whimpers at the loss of the egg while the older man sighs.

“Great.”  He grumbles.  Lance looks at them.

“Maybe we should pay the fortuneteller a visit.”  He says. Shiro shook his head, Keith nods.

“Might be interesting.”  He says. Lance climbs on Black.

“It’s two out of three Shiro.”  Lance comments. “Come on, let’s go pay this Aunt Luxia a visit.”  Shiro growls and hops on Black. They flew towards the village.

* * *

They land, Keith was drying himself off.  Lance looks at all his clothes and kept wringing them out.

“You couldn’t find something to block the rain?”

“I was holding the egg.”  Keith says. Lance flings his shirt free from water and hands it back to him.  Keith puts it on while Lance wrung out his shorts.

“Yeah and we lost it.”

“Sorry.”  Keith found his sash and ties it around his top to keep it closed.  Lance hands Keith his shorts and waits for him to get dressed. Keith grabs his journal and hops down with Lance.  They looked around with Shiro who wasn’t happy to be in the village. A man walks up to them.

“Welcome to Makapu Village young ones, Aunt Luxia was expecting you three.”

“Of course she was.”  Shiro says in a done tone.  Keith gave Shiro a look, Lance pats his shoulder.

“Hey calm down.”  Lance said and pats Shiro’s shoulder.  Shiro glares at him but follows the man to Aunt Luxia.  They entered the room and a young girl who looked about sixteen who was holding a few puffs.

“Hello, I’m Plaxum.”  She greets herself. “I am Aunt Luxia’s assistant.  Puff?” She offers, Shiro pouts and refused. Keith took one and happily ate it, Lance groans at their behaviours.  He took one and nods.

“Thank you.”  He tells her, Plaxums face dropped when she saw Lance.  She got excited and nods.

“Yes, y-you’re welcome.”  She said quickly. Plaxum turns away and ran off, Lance was very concerned.

“Is she okay?”  He asks the man, he shrugs.

“Plaxum is a weird one, probably took a liking to you.”

“That’s the second one to fall for you.”  Shiro says in a teasing manner, Lance chuckles.

“Heh, guess I’m too good looking to resist.”

“You wish, line stealer.”  Shiro pushes him. Lance laughs.

“Gotta ruin my good mood.”  He says, Keith stood around awkwardly.  Rubbing the binding of his journal and looked around to distract him.  Just then a woman runs in happily.

“Aunt Luxia Aunt Luxia!  Your fortune came true!” She shouts.  “My true love came and gave me this! A panda lily!”  The three look over at the flower, Keith wishes he brought his pen and ink so he could draw the flower.

Plaxum stood there happy for the woman, the overly happy woman stops when she saw the group of guys standing there.  One in particular caught her eye.

“Hey Plaxum, isn’t that the one Aunt Luxia predicted you’d marry?”  She asks. “I mean the description is spot on, especially those eyes.”  Plaxum blushes and looks down, she runs without looking and bumps into Lance.  Causing her to fall over.

“Woah!  Hey, you okay?”  He asks while helping her up.  She got flustered.

“Yes yes I’m fine!”  She stutters and runs off, Lance sighs.

“She’s an awkward one, that and also obvious.”  He comments, that got a chuckle from Shiro. “It’s cute though.”

“You can find your true love up north.”  Shiro reminds him, Lance laughs and nods.  Lance is one for love, but knows that he won’t fall that easily.  He knows he needs to know them before falling for them. Finding a woman up north sounded like a plan.

While they joked around a woman dressed in lavender and a few gold hair pieces walks in, she looked young and was drop dead gorgeous.  She walks up gracefully to the three.

“I’ve been expecting you three.”  She says. “I am Aunt Luxia, which one of you would like to go?”  She asks, the three stood there awkwardly. Lance shrugs.

“Eh, why not?”  He follows her out of the main room.  Keith and Shiro look at one another. They say nothing and wait for Lance to come back.

In the room Lance looks at Aunt Luxia, he was curious about what he was going to ask.  Not a lot was on his mind besides the north and other things that he feared. Like family, secrets, making out of the war alive.  Maybe that last one he should ask about.

“You are a beautiful young man, those eyes are bright.”

“Most can’t see them.”  Lance said. “So I can ask anything?”

“Yes.”  She nods.  “Whatever you like.”  Lance takes a deep breath and says.

“My future, will I live?”

“What a weird thing to ask.”  Luxia comments. “I can tell you things that will happen in your lifetime.”

“Well I’m in a war, I almost died.”  He said sadly. She nods.

“I know, your scar under your right breast is proof of that.”  She says. Lance jumps a bit.

“H-How do you know about that scar?  Can you see it?” He checks his shirt to see if it’s still closed.  It is, Luxia laughs.

“I’ve seen you get it, it was painful.”  She says. “Your brother saw it, he thinks you are gone now.  He blames himself.” She tells him. Lance felt tears trying to escape his eyes, she smiles and pats his shoulder.

“Fear not, you will see them again.”

“I will?”  He asks happily.  She nods.

“Now what else do I see?”  She held his hand and closes her eyes.  She nods. “I see many things in your future, you’ve got a long life ahead of you.”

“Oh thank the spirits!”  Lance was relieved.

“That is all you want to know?”  She asks, Lance shrugs.

“Life is all about surprises.”  He said. “I want to see what life gives me, that’s kind of the point of it.”  Lance got up. “Thank you for telling me.”

“You are very welcome.”  She leads him back up to Shiro and Keith, who were wrestling for some odd reason.  Luxia raised an eyebrow while Lance groans.

“Shiro you’re suppose to be the adult here.”  He says, Shiro chuckles while keeping a giggling Keith in a headlock.

“What, he started it.”  He said innocently. Lance tries to seperate them, resulted in him getting pulled into the wrestling match.

“One of you go please!”  He squeaks. Keith got up and nods.

“I’ll go, is that okay with you Shiro?”

“Fine by me.”  He kept Lance in a headlock now, he didn’t look too pleased to be in his situation.  Keith follows Luxia down and they sat in the room. She held her hand out for Keith to grab.

“Are you ready?”

“S-Sure.”  He said, she picks up a bone that is in the room and throws it in a pot, she watches it crack.  Keith copies her, throwing the bone in, it explodes. Keith just stood there like he did something wrong, Luxia looks at it hysterically.

“You… you will be a part of a great battle, one that will determine the fate of the entire world!”

“Yeah… I know that.”  Keith already knows who he is and what he’s supposed to do.  “You see anything else?” Keith asks. “Like how to win? Or anything else in the future?”

“Well I can’t say for sure, but I know you will be a great man and have many by your side to share this with.”  She says. Keith nods and got up.

“Well thank you.”

“Are you sure that is all you want to hear?  I can tell you want to ask me something else.”  She says, Keith looks down, unsure of himself.

“Well yeah… but it’s stupid.  I know that it won’t be in my future.”  He walks out, Luxia smiles.

“You may ask me anything dear boy.”  She says, Keith looks down.

“It’s about my own personal life… will I be happy?”  He asks, she looks down.

“I cannot tell, the bones did not say anything about your life, whether it is about love or a long life I cannot see it.”  Keith looks a little down, Luxia panics. “Ah but this crack here! If you trust your heart, you will make the right choice.  And who knows what that means!”

Keith sighs but gave her a soft smile, he nods and leaves the room, she follows and they both find the two still wrestling.  Though Lance was trying to get away from Shiro the best he can, the scrawny boy was getting nowhere.

“Shiro I said knock it off!  I don’t want to fight anymore!”  Lance says, Plaxum was the only other person in the room, watching Lance suffer.  “Keith! Keith please help me!” He reaches for Keith, he sighs and got Lance out of Shiro’s grasp.  Lance clung to him and glares at the Air Nomad.

Luxia looks at Shiro with a smile.

“Your turn.”

“Alright, let’s get this over with.”  He held his hand out in front of her, she just stares at him.

“Um, you wish to do it here?”

“Do I have to follow to get a silly fortune?”

“Shiro.”  Lance warns.  “Don’t be difficult.”  Shiro did not like how Lance was acting, it wasn’t like the Lance they got to know.  Well scratch that, he acts like this when it comes to Keith, but never Shiro.

“No need to come with me.”  She says. “Your future will be full of struggle and anguish, mostly self inflicted.”  She says. Shiro just stares at her.

“Ha, yeah right.”  He says, she sighs and lets him believe what he wants.  Shiro walks away and leaves the other two alone. They watch Shiro leave, wondering if he’s taking the fortune well.

Meanwhile Shiro was grumbling outside, mad that Aunt Luxia made up that fortune to upset him.

“Yeah right, like I’ll be upset.  My life will be fine, I’m happy now and like hell anything is going to ruin it.”  He said as he kicked a rock, which ricocheted off a sign and back at his face, he growls and read the sign, it said ‘good blessing’.  “Seriously?!” He asks, he gave up and went to Black. He had enough of this crazy day and it isn’t even over yet.

* * *

The group found each other and saw everyone crowding around the middle of the village.  They walked over curiously to see what it was about. When Shiro asked what was going on, a villager said that Aunt Luxia was going to read the village fortune with the clouds.  He groans and grabs Blacks reigns.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“I want to hear though.”  Lance complains.

“Yeah, me too.”  Keith agrees. Shiro pouts and watches Aunt Luxia predict the future of the village.  She walks out and looks at the clouds, everyone waits for her predictions. She looks down at everyone with a smile.

“There will be a good harvest this year!  Also it is a good year for twins, lastly the volcano Mt. Makapu will not destroy the village!”  Her good fortune had people cheering. She walks back to her home while everyone kept cheering.

“Wow, she’s amazing.”  Lance said.

“She’s a fraud.”  Shiro comments. “You can’t predict the future by staring at a few clouds.

“You have no faith.”  Lance says as he hops down.  “Even if they’re wrong they’re all in good fun.”  He says with a smile, just than Plaxum takes him away.

“Come on, let’s get her read your fortune again!”  She says, Lance just stares at her and looks back at the other two to see what they’ll do.

“Hey Shiro, can we go find panda lilies?”  Keith asks, Shiro looks at him with a questioning look.  “After I saw that girl with one I’ve been wanting to draw one.  So can we go find them? I’ve heard they’re near Mt. Makapu.” He asks.  Shiro sighs and nods.

“Fine, we’ll go.”  He said. “But just so you know it’s at the rim of the volcano.”

“I know.”  Keith said.  Lance just looks at them with a smile.

“Well you two have fun, I’ll be here with Plaxum okay?”  He says. “Just tell me when you’re ready to leave.”

“Nah, we’ll leave you.”  Keith teases, Lance smirks at him.

“Okay have fun getting up north without me.”  He says as he walks off, Shiro pushes Keith, he almost fell off of Black.

“If you’re done then let’s go.”

* * *

Shiro watches as Keith sits along the mountain ground and draws the lilies.  He was pretty comfortable for being near a volcano, but Shiro thinks it has something to do with Keith’s heritage.  Fire is his thing.

Shiro looks down at the volcano, his eyes grew.

“Um… Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Quick question, do you know what a volcano looks like before it erupts?”

“Yeah, it’s easy to tell.”

“Okay… now tell me…”  Shiro points at the volcano.  “Does this look like it’ll erupt?”  Keith looks down at it and panics.

“Yeah… yeah that is what it looks like!”  He grabs his journal and hops on Black. “Come on Shiro, we’ve got to warn the villagers!”  Shiro nods in agreement and hops on Black, with a yip yip they fly quickly towards the village.

* * *

“You’ve got to believe us!”

“The volcano is going to destroy this place!”  No one would believe the two, Lance walks out and gave the two a look as they kept trying to convince the villagers.

“What are you two doing?”

“Lance?”  Keith looks over, he grabs the poor boy and got right in his face.  “Lance, you have to help us! The volcano up there, it’s going to erupt!”

“What?”  Lance asks.

“The volcano is going to erupt!  We need Aunt Luxia to tell everyone that the village is in danger!”  

“Slow down Keith, are you sure the volcano is going to erupt?”  He asks.

“Lance, I’m from a nation full of volcanoes.  I’m sure I know when one is about to blow up!”  Keith said, Lance held his arms up in defense.

“Okay okay, what do you want me to do?”

“I need you to find out how Luxia can read clouds, can you do that?”

“I can try.”  Lance said.

“Good, I’m counting on you, got it?”

“Got it.”  Lance said.  He runs off towards Luxia’s home to find what Keith was looking for.  Something, anything, how the hell did this woman read clouds. As he was looking he felt a pair of eyes looking at him.  He looks over and sees Plaxum staring right at him.

He yelps and looks right at her.

“U-Uh Plaxum…”  He looks around to make an excuse.  “This is… well this isn’t what it-” She shuts him up by handing him a book, he looks at the cover, a book on how to read cloud formations.  He slowly looks at her, she shrugs.

“I was… I was stalking you…”

“O-kay?”  Lance was a little creeped out by that.  She continues to speak.

“Sorry about being a little clingy to you, and for acting strange.  I thought you were my soulmate. Aunt Luxia told me that my soulmate would be from a far away land and have blue eyes.  Clearly you aren’t him.”

“What gave that away?”  Lance asks while taking the book, she shrugs.

“When I asked Luxia about you, she said you were to be married to a bender.”  She says. “I am not a bender.”

“I marry a bender?”  Lance was kind of curious about that.  “Is she from the north?” Plaxum shook her head.

“From how Luxia sounded, you’ll meet them somewhere else.”  She says. That made Lance very confused, he was going to stay in the north after those two drop him off.  He wonders when he’ll meet his future wife.

He shook his head, now is not the time for this.  He looks at Plaxum and thanks her before he ran out.  He found Keith and Shiro still trying to convince people, they looked completely hopeless.  Lance ran up to his friend and showed the book.

“So this shows what different cloud formations mean?”

“I guess.”  Lance said, Shiro smirks.

“Told ya she was a fake!”  He sounded so proud of himself, both boys glare at him.  Seriously not the time for this.

“Quickly, find one for doom or volcanoes or something!”

“Okay okay, let’s see…”  He stops at one for destruction.  “Here, make this formation.”

“Got it.”  Keith stares at it.  Lance ran off to find Luxia, Shiro told Keith to stand somewhere and make the clouds move.  “Wait, move the clouds?”

“Yeah.”

“But…”

“I’m gonna help Lance find Luxia, you need to move the clouds to the form of destruction.”  He runs off.

“But…”  Shiro was gone.  “I can’t waterbend.”  Keith needed to waterbend to make the stupid formation.  He sighs. “Okay Keith, you can do this.” He gives himself a pep talk and tried to make the formation, it wasn’t working.

He needed to waterbend as well, problem, he can’t do that.  Keith concentrates on airbending as much as possible, hoping that it would work.  Suddenly the clouds started to move with much more ease. Keith watches as he got them into formation.

“How did that-?”

“Keith!”  Lance shouts, he ran from the side.  “I couldn’t find Luxia anywhere, where’s Shiro?”  He asks, Keith was still too stunned. Lance looks up and smiles.  “Wow, you actually did it, nice work!” Lance cheers for him.

“I don’t know how I did that.”

“You’re the Avatar Keith, what more do you need?”  He asks, Shiro came up while the two spoke. Aunt Luxia was with them, she looked surprised at the clouds.  She ran up to the podium and all the villagers looked over.

“People, the clouds have shown me something!”  She says, everyone looks at her with worry. “Mt. Makapu is going to erupt!”  She says, everyone gasps. Shiro stood next to her and looks at everyone.

“Listen, we need every earthbender available and anyone who can dig.  The Avatar and I are going to come up and help you so your village can stay safe.”  Everyone nods at Shiro’s words, all the earthbenders follow him. Keith about did before Lance stopped him.

“You guys are seriously going to go help them?!”

“Yeah, we can’t just stand around Lance.”  Keith said, Lance gave a worried look. “Look I know you’re worried about Shiro and I cause we can’t earthbend, but it’s my job to help people.  I can’t turn my back on them, I will help in any way I can.” He looks at Lance dead in the eye. “We can’t bend but we can still dig. I want you to help too, okay?”

Lance said nothing, he was still worried about this plan.  After a moment of silence Lance reaches around his neck and pulls his necklace off and puts it around Keith’s.  He held the stone in his hand and looks at the Avatar.

“For good luck.”  He says before he bolts to the trench.  Keith watches Lance leave, looking at the rocks attached to the line.  He couldn’t help but smile, warmth creeping up his face.

He remembers what he was doing and runs towards the trench with Shiro.  The two were helping with making the trench. They even saw Luxia digging, she was still in her fancy clothes and she was digging away.

Finally the volcano erupted, coming down fast, burning everything in its path.  Everyone ditched the trench and watched the lava come down and into the trench. However it wasn’t enough to stop it.

“Oh no… no no no no!”  Keith runs up, Shiro tries to stop him but Keith ran for it.  With little time and fresh out of options Keith unleashes a massive gust of wind.  Solidifying the lava around them, making a wall. Everyone was in awe of what they just saw, Lance ran up to Shiro and saw what Keith did.

“I forget how powerful a bender Keith really is.”  Shiro comments, Lance nods. Keith never shows his full potential, hell Keith probably doesn’t know it as well.  He stops and looks back at what he did. Everyone cheered happily, praising the Avatar for saving their village.

Aunt Luxia walks towards Keith, he panics and held the book close.  He sighs and slowly gave it back for her, fearing the worst.

“Amazing!  Look at what you can do!  In all my years I have never seen anything like this, and I am an old woman mind you.”  She says happily, Keith was surprised to hear that.

“Y-You aren’t mad at me?”

“Mad?  Why would I be?”  She asks, Keith shrugs.  

“I dunno… I guess for stealing this.  For making up cloud formations.” Keith sighs.  “I’m sorry. I was just scared for the people down here, and I was a little upset myself.  It felt like you lied to make me happy about my own future.” He didn’t look at her, too afraid of her response.

“You are responsible for shaping your own destiny.”  She says, Keith quickly looks up at her. She smiles and walked away.

Meanwhile Shiro spoke up happily.

“So that means that I was right about Aunt Luxia!  Her fortunes are a hoax!” He said proudly. The man who dealt with the platypus bear spoke up.

“Hold on.”  Shiro looks at him.  “She never said the volcano wasn’t going to erupt, only that it wouldn’t destroy our village.”  Shiro stops and thinks of something to say, finally he pouts and glares at the man.

“I hate you.”  Was all he could get out before Lance dragged him away.  Shiro not taking his eyes off the man until he got to Black.  They all waved goodbye to the villagers. Luxia wishes them farewell.  Lance and Plaxum hug before he hops on, they all wave goodbye and continued their journey north.


	12. The Scroll

The group travels along the northern path in the Earth Kingdom, getting closer and closer to their destination.  Lance looks at the water below him, he tries to reach for it over Black but no such luck. Keith saw his struggle and kicked him off with a smirk, Lance shrieks and lands in the water, he swims to the surface and scowls at Keith who was laughing.

“WHEN I GET UP THERE YOU ARE SO DEAD!”

“Sure.”  Keith responds before Shiro pushes him off.  He glares at Shiro, before he could say anything he was dunked by Lance.

“Ha, serves you right!”  He says, Keith grabs his arm and yanks him under as well.  Shiro watches the boys wrestle before he had enough and lands Black next to them.  They didn’t notice till Shiro spoke up.

“If you two are done mauling each other, I’d like to keep going.”  He says, both of them look directly at him. Keith uses airbending to push him off, Shiro panics and falls off.  Both boys climb on Black and point and laugh at him. He raised an eyebrow. “Ha ha very funny you two.”

He hops back on and continues to fly with them, they landed on a beach and allows them for a quick rest and time to stretch their legs.  Lance did a cartwheel in the sand and smiles, his long body needed this. Even though he went for a quick swim.

He continues to walk along the beach when he saw something that caught his eye.  He was very confused but went to check it out. What he saw was a boat that belonged to the south, his own tribe.  He ran to it and looked around.

“These things sailed off years ago…”  He kept exploring and found many things from his home.  He sat down and kept looking through, finding old items that were useless and worth nothing.  But Lance loved seeing them, it was something from his own tribe, which he hasn’t seen in a while.  Seeing something familiar made him happy.

He found a betrothal necklace that had an iceberg on it as it’s design.  He puts it down and found a weapon, he puts that down and found a coat. He smells it, regretting that decision he puts it down and kept looking.  Finally a blue scroll. He picks it up and stares at it.

He unrolls it on the ground and gasps.

“This is a waterbending scroll!”  He says. “This… this is perfect! Keith would love it.”  He picks it up and was ready to take it out when he heard someone come in.  He panics and hid, curse his paranoia. It could be his friends, but fear and survival told him otherwise.

He heard people walking around and enter the room he was hiding in, glad he was paranoid, it wasn’t anyone he knew.  No Lance was in the same room as some pirates. Oh boy he was so lucky.

“Looks like someone was in here.”  One said holding up the items on the floor.

“Probably years ago.”  They kept talking, Lance held the scroll tight and tried to sneak off, only to be stopped by another pirate at the entryway.

“Well what do we have here boys?”  He asks, Lance squeaks and backs away.  That furious look in his eyes again. “A little mouse seems to be running around in the rubble.”

“I-I was just heading on out!”  He says, the pirates laugh.

“So a little waterbender is hiding out here.  Who would’ve thought.” They said.

“I’m not a bender, and I was just leaving.  You can take whatever you want.” He said, looking for something to attack with cause clearly they weren’t going to let him go.  He gave up and grabs his boomerang, trying to attack the pirate in front of him. However the bigger man grabs his arm and held him tight.  Lance quickly hops on his legs and kicks the man in the gut. He lets go and watches Lance flee. Thank the spirits he’s got good legs.

He ran into the rest of the pirates, he looks around.  Only the ocean and the scroll. He gave them a look, knowing that if he didn’t do it now he’d be in trouble.  He lifts an arm up but the pirate he kicked grabs him from behind and held him up. Lance tries kicking him but the pirate was set on keeping his strong flexible legs far from his body.

Lance screams in frustration, demanding they let him go.  They took him on their ship, now he was their prisoner.

* * *

The two heard Lance’s scream, without a second thought they ran towards the scream.  Shiro grumbles about Lance always getting himself caught while Keith rolls his eyes, now's not the time to be upset.  They looked and saw the pirate ship sailing away, Shiro grabs Keith by the waist and ran at the ship with his staff. Both boys flew towards the ship.

They landed and saw all the pirates staring at them, Keith didn’t think twice before firebending at a few of them.  Shiro decided to airbend them away and grabs Keith’s wrist before running around trying to find Lance.

So far nothing, they can’t even find a jail cell or a dungeon.  Nothing. The pirates proved to be strong and persistent. Like the Marmorians, they can fight benders like it’s a normal opponent.  Keith firebends again and they blocked with their swords. He curses under his breath, he can’t use anything advance or big or he’ll burn the ship down and might harm his captured friend.

Then they charged at them, Shiro noticed they were coming from both sides.  He tries to airbend them away but for every man that fell three more took his place.  Soon enough the got overwhelmed and got caught.

The pirates threw the two in a random room and locked the door.  It was a pretty bare room, with only a bed in it and a bucket. They really don’t want to know what that’s used for.

“Nice to see you two drop in.”  A familiar voice chirps up. They look up to see Lance sitting on a wood piece that was jutting out from the wall.  The two were not happy with him, he wandered off and got caught, now they got caught too.

“What have I said about you wandering off where Shiro and I can’t see you?”

“What have I told you about me taking care of myself?”  Lance retorts. “And I wasn’t wandering off. I saw a ship from my tribe so I went in to see what I could find.  I found something useful and those damn pirates took it from me.” He says with a scowl. He looks back at the wall so he didn’t have to look at the two.

Shiro could sense the tension from those two and decided to once again play peacemaker.

“Okay calm down you two, the important thing is we’re together again.  Sure we were caught by pirates, we’ve gotten through worse. So let’s think of an idea to get us out of here.”

“Burn the ship down.”  Keith held his arm up, already lit on fire.

“Not happening.”  Shiro said.

“Well I don’t care how we get out as long as I can get the scroll back.”

“You got yourself caught over a scroll?!”  Keith snaps.

“Yes!”  Lance snaps back.  “I thought it’d be useful so I took it!”

“Useful?!  How can a stupid scroll from an old ship be useful?!”

“It was a waterbending scroll!  I got it for you, ungrateful jerk!”  Lance pouts and looks away. Everyone went quiet, Shiro looks at Keith who looked a little confused yet hurt.  Probably feeling a little guilty. Lance didn’t like the odd silence so he spoke again.

“Both of you can airbend at the door and we can try to make an escape.  If not you two can get out and I can find another way. I mean I have a way for me to get out.  I already had a plan before you two came in.”

“No we’re not leaving you here, we stick together.”  Shiro says, that made Lance groan. He rolls his eyes and looks like a dramatic teenager.

“I said I had a plan.  You two can escape using the staff, I still want to get the scroll back.”

“Forget the scroll Lance.”  Keith said in a quiet tone. “We’re traveling up north so I can learn waterbending.  I don’t need the scroll.”

“But…”  Lance sighs.  “You seemed impatient and I saw that and thought it’d be useful.”  Lance kicks his legs in the air. He felt useless on this team like always, just a quick ticket to get north.  Sure he can’t fight like them, he still wishes he could do something.

“Lance, it’s okay.”  Keith said happily. “I’m happy you were thinking of me, I think it’s sweet.  But our first priority getting out of here, not some scroll.” Lance wanted to refuse, but he nods and agrees.

“Okay.”

“Good, now what was that plan of yours?”  Keith asks, Lance smiles and hops down.

“Okay, so this is what we’ll do-”

* * *

The pirate guarding the door was bored out of his mind, he heard a terrified scream coming from the room.  The pirate jumps at the sudden scream and opens the door. Lance was on the ground holding his leg like he was in pain.  He looks at the pirate with a pitiful look.

“That firebender is crazy!  He-He burnt me!” Lance cries, the pirate actually walks towards him and checks his leg.  His pants and leg were indeed burnt, the pirate glares at Lance.

“Where is he?”

“I-I don’t know.”  He whimpers. Behind the pirate Keith and Shiro snuck out.  Lance winks and that’s when the pirate noticed.

“You liar!”

“I’ve been called that before.”  Lance said with a smirk. The pirate slaps his leg in anger, he yelps.  “Ow! He did actually burn me!” The pirate grabs Lance by the neck and glares.

“They left you, you think you can get out?”  He growls. Lance smirks again.

“You think I didn’t have a plan?”  Lance chokes out. “I’ve got you right where I want you.”

“Don’t make me laugh little tribesman.”  The pirate mocks him. Lance grabs the pirates arm with a determined look in his eyes.

* * *

Keith ran out with Shiro, both boys went along with Lance’s plan, Lance agreed not to look for the scroll and make it out.  So they trusted him and the plan was in affect. Keith was surprised by Lance’s request to burn his leg, he did it and actually made sure it was painful.  Lance was probably upset because of that, but it needed to be realistic.

“Keith, this way!”  Shiro shouts, Keith nods and follows.  He grabs his staff and airbends a few of the pirates out of the way.  Keith dealt with the ones who got too close. Once most of them were out of the way and Shiro caught a clear view of the sky he grabs Keith and runs with his staff.  Both flew off.

“Can I ask why you didn’t airbend the entire time we were stuck?”  Shiro asked while they flew off. Keith sat there then remembered.

“I forget I can airbend sometimes.”

“After all this time you somehow forgot you’re the Avatar?”

“Hey give me a break, most people my age worry about marriage and stuff, not saving the entire world and their dumb friend!”  They kept flying, hoping Lance got out.

* * *

Lance ran on the ship, avoiding pirates as much as possible.  He kept hiding in random rooms whenever they passed. He could fight, but these guys were bigger and stronger than him, and he didn’t want to cause a scene.

He ran into another room again and hid, he sees what room he’s in.  They had a large selection of stolen scrolls, these pirates had nothing better to steal did they…  Lance noticed one of them right away.

He promised Keith and Shiro he wouldn’t try to find it, but it’s right there.  He looks around and runs to it. Taking it and hiding it in his tunic. He waits for the hallway to be clear and runs out again.  He kept running around, hopefully nothing will stop him.

He stops and held his leg in pain, damn he was so going to kill Keith.  He said just make it look like it was burnt, not actually put him in physical pain.  And that smile made it worse, damn he was sadistic.

The pirate that guarded his door found him with a few others.

“There he is, that is the one who attacked me!”  He says, Lance rolls his eyes.

“Aw, you got taken out by someone half your size.  Must really hurt your pride.” Lance mocks, the other two pirates laugh.  He glares at them and runs at Lance, he quickly dodges it and kept running towards the exit.  If he can get in the water he’ll be safe.

He ran and saw another ship coming towards them, his blood ran cold.  The pirates stopped too and freaked out with him.

“F-Fire Nation…”  He says. The pirates prepare themselves, Lance looked around for some way to escape but the other boat came in quickly.

They were right next to the ship and Lance hid behind one pirate, hey it was a common enemy so he could trust them for now.  A familiar man walks down and looks around, Lance growls.

“Not him again…”

“You know him?”  A pirate asks. Lance doesn’t answer, just seeing him again made his stomach turn.  Thank god Keith and Shiro got out.

“Well not everyday you see pirates out here.”  Lotor says, his two trusted generals walk out. They stood next to him as he spoke.  “I assume you know why I came on.”

“You aren’t getting our goods!”

“Oh calm down, I don’t want that.  I just want info if you would be so kind.”  The pirates were confused by this but listened to Lotor’s request.  “I’m looking for a firebender, he’s a traitor to the Fire Nation and we would like him back.”  He says. “I just want to know if you’ve seen a firebender recently.”

“We have.”  The captain nods.  A pirate near Lance grabs him and presents him to Lotor.

“He was traveling with this tribesman!”  He says while pointing at Lance, he growls at the pirate, wanting his arm back.  The man had an aggressive grip. Lotor nods and smiles at the pirates.

“Heh, you found my firebender.”  He says. “Ezor you can go hold him down.”  He says, the peppy girl practically had hearts in her eyes and ran up to him.  She grabs his arms and kept them behind him. He just stares her down.

“Hi again my cute tribesman~”

“Kill me…”  He grumbles.  Lotor looks at the pirates.

“Help me catch the fugitive and I’ll let you see you get a hefty payment.”  The pirates eyes went wide, they liked the sound of that. They nod and started their boat towards where they saw Shiro and Keith fly off.  Lotor motions Zethrid to follow, she nods and Narti looks over and gave him a thumbs up saying they’ll be right behind.

Lance sighs, this is really his unlucky day.  First he got caught by pirates, now the creepy prince with his minions caught him when he tried to escape.  He needs to find a way out, he could fight. He didn’t really need his arms, but… Lotor. He would know, if he used his legs the others would attack him.  If he could get his arms free he could use his boomerang.

But they’d all fight him.  No way out of this, he had to just suffer being a prisoner again.  He’s really disappointed in himself right now.

* * *

Keith and Shiro waited by Black for Lance to get out, Keith began to pace while Shiro looks out.  He sighs, no sign so far. Keith was messing with the necklace, rubbing the stones between his fingers to keep himself calm.

“You okay Keith?”  Shiro asks, Keith just looks at him.  He looked impatient and ready to pounce on the nearest person, Shiro backs off.  He is the nearest person, he will not fall victim to Keith’s temper. As soon as Shiro was out of sight he paced again while rubbing the stones.  

Soon enough something came up near the shores, the pirate boat.  Keith and Shiro stare it down in confused anger. They saw someone all too familiar walk up.

“Hello you traitor!”  Lotor shouts to them. Both boys glare at him, Shiro mutters something along the lines of ‘again?’.  Lotor walks closer to yell at them. “You are to give yourselves up to me or your little friend pays the consequence.”  He gestures towards Ezor to walk up with Lance still in her grasp. He glares at Lotor.

When Lotor got close Lance used that opportunity to kick him in the face.  He smiles, satisfied by the noise he heard when he foot came into contact with his face.  Lotor glares at him, he really found this guy to be the most annoying out of the group. He lit his hand on fire and looks at the two on the beach.

“If you do not meet my demands then your friend will pay the price.”

“Oh I get a prize?”  Lance makes a joke out of this.  Lotor sees the burn on his leg, Lance looks down and glares at him.  Warning him not to do it, Lotor grips the already burnt area and watches Lance skin practically peel off.  He screams in pain, he kicked Lotor away. Lotor glares at him, but it turned into an amused face when he saw Lance was actually crying in pain.  He was trying so hard not to cry, trying to be strong, but the pain he felt on his damaged leg was making it hard.

Keith snapped, he ran at the ship.  Shiros stops him, he shook his head.  They needed a better plan besides running into danger.

“So what will it be?  Save your friend, or leave him to die!”  He shouts. Keith and Shiro look over, they got on Black and flew away.  They weren’t expecting them to up and flee on them, Lotor curses. “Dammit, that didn’t work.  This one is worthless, obviously the Avatar doesn’t care about him. Useless.” He spits at Lance, he just glares at him.  Ezor smiles and hugs him.

“So can I take him?”

“I don’t care.”  He says, she squeals and hugs tighter.  Lance didn’t fight her, he was in so much pain.  Acxa just sighs at Ezor’s behavior, she does not approve of falling for the enemy.  But Lotor didn’t care, and she’ll follow him to the ends of the Earth.

The pirates wonder what to do now.  Lotor looks at them, before he could say anything the sun was blocked out.  Shiro and Keith both jump down and instantly attacked. The pirates and Lotor practically jumped back, way to surprised to react in time.

Acxa firebends at Keith, he dodges it and attacks her, Lotor went at him as well with lightning bending.  Shiro was stuck with pirates who ran at him. Lance tried to free himself of Ezor, she pouts as he tried to free himself.  Ezor forced him down and smirks.

“Don’t fight now, Darling.”  She said with a wicked look in her eyes.  Zethrid runs out on the boat and attacked Shiro, he quickly dodges her attacks but didn’t expect Narti to jump from behind the larger woman and kneeing Shiro in the face.  She sat on his back and held a blade against his throat, she wouldn’t hesitate.

A few pirates grabbed a hold of Keith and pinned him down, putting two swords on both side of his neck.  He growls like an animal, his eyes just as feral.

“Finally, we caught you.”  He says. Keith lunges slightly, his limited movement was pissing him off.  Lotor chuckles and walks towards Lance, Ezor got him standing again. “You’d really risk your life over this pathetic tribesman.”  He asks.

Lance just glares again, trying to keep his wound away from Lotor.  He notices something in Lance’s shirt, he opens Lance’s shirt and noticed the scar on his torso.  Lotor looks away from the ugly stab wound and found what he was noticing. He pulls out the scroll and smirks.

“What’s this?”  He asks holding the scroll in Lance’s face.  He looks at the ground, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.  Keith and Shiro were disappointed in him, he went for the scroll after all, he lied.  Doesn’t change anything, he’s been called that before.

“So you want to help with waterbending huh?  Cute.” He held the scroll and burns it, Lance panics as he saw the scroll burn.  The pirates looked just as shocked, that was priceless and this guy just destroyed it.

“No… That was-”

“Was what?”  Lotor asks. “Honestly it’s pathetic how you’re trying to be useful!  Laughable really. You think you’ll ever accomplish anything? You’re a waste of space, replaceable.  I have no clue why these two would waste their time on you.” Lotor says with a wicked smile.

Lance looks down, looking rather defeated.  He hated this, his leg hurts and how he can feel himself about to lose it and cry.  He doesn’t like to be reminded how useless he is. Next thing that happens shocks the prince.  A gust of wind knocks him and a few pirates over, it even knocks Narti and Zethrid over.

He looks over and sees Keith’s eyes were glowing, looking rather pissed off.  Shiro was startled that Keith suddenly went into his Avatar State, and he entered it through pure anger.  That’s not good.

Keith held his arms out, nothing.  The boat began to rock, suddenly a huge wave came from behind him.  He throws his arms down aggressively causing the wave to crash onto the boat and sink it.  Everyone panics and went down.

Shiro and Lance were free and swam to the surface.  They looked around for Keith, he was resting on a piece of wood.  Shiro swam towards him and helps him on his back, they swam to shore and looked at Keith who was unconscious.

Lance leans over and looks up at Shiro.

“Is he okay?”  He asks, Shiro nods.

“He’s fine Lance, he’s just unconscious.”  He tells him. “He can’t fully control his Avatar State yet so when it happens, it takes a lot out of him.”  He informs Lance, he just looks at Keith and sighs.

“So that’s what the Avatar is capable of…”  He says, Shiro shook his head.

“No, Keith can do so much more.  That was only a bit of his power.”  That shocked Lance, Keith is more powerful than what he just saw?  How much power does the Avatar possess?

Shiro picks Keith up and hops on Black, Lance struggled to get on and sat next to Keith.  They flew off and hid from Lotor and the pirates for a bit.

* * *

Keith woke up after a while.  He saw Shiro smiling at him.

“Rise and Shine Avatar.”  He says, Keith held his head and groans.

“What happened?”

“Well you got angry at Lotor, went into your Avatar State, proceeded to waterbend, sunk the pirates ship, and passed out.”  Shiro says, Keith looks at him.

“I did?”  He asks. “Oh…”

“Yeah, at least you waterbended.”

“I don’t know how I did that…”  He admits, Shiro nods and pats his back.  Keith was still nauseous. He held his head and groans.  He looks around and sees Lance was nowhere in sight. “Where’s Lance?”  He asks, that caused Shiro to chuckle.

“He’s trying to find some things to help his wound.”  He says. Just then they heard a familiar scream and Lance comes out of nowhere and runs into Shiro’s arms.  He clung to the older man and looks over in fear.

The two look up and saw the pirates found them, thanks to Lance.  They didn’t look like they wanted to fight. They looked at Keith and smiled, finally they began to cheer.

“Hurray for the Avatar!”  They all cheered for him. Keith held his head, their cheering was not helping his headache.  They didn’t noticed and kept cheering. Shiro looks at them with a raised eyebrow, still having Lance clinging to him like a starfish.

“You aren’t going to hurt us?”

“No!  Why didn’t you say you were the Avatar?”  They asked Keith, he just stares at them. He didn’t tell them cause they kidnapped his friend and held him and his other friend as prisoners.  So yeah, no time to tell everyone he was the Avatar.

“Rocky start, but we’re on the same side.”

“We are?”  Lance asks.  The pirates nod.

“We want to be free from the Fire Nation’s rule as much as you.”  One says.

“Yeah, we use to be traders until they took over.  Now we raid the lands and find goods, some of it is to keep the old culture alive.”  Another says.

“That’s why you took the scroll?”  Shiro asks, they nod.

“That’s right.  We were trying to preserve it.  Till that horrid prince burnt it.”  He says. “We could guess why you wanted it.”  They said to Lance, he sighs and looks down, slowly crawling off of Shiro.

“I’m gonna go look for medicine again.”  He got up and walked off. Everyone watches him walk off.

“I’m guessing that he’s still upset by it.”  A pirate points out.

“He was getting it for me, since I still need to master water.”  Keith said quietly. “I guess he really does feel useless.” They all felt the same disappointment that Lance felt, none of them liked it.  The pirates changed the mood when they pulled something out. The captain hands Keith a scroll that they managed to save.

“It isn’t a bending scroll, but we think it might be useful.”  Keith takes it and held it close.

“Thank you.”  He looks up at them, they smile and nod.

“Call on us if you ever need help in a fight.  You can count on us!” The pirates held their weapons up and cheered.  Keith smiles and nods, he’ll keep these guys in mind. The pirates left and took over Lotor’s boat, that made the two laugh.  Lotor might not bother them for a while now. Lance ran up and sees what they’re laughing about.

They got on Black and began to fly, Keith looks at Lance’s burn, it was gone.  He wanted to know what kind of crazy miracle Lance found to cure himself. He looks at Keith and back at his leg.

“Oh I found some good medicine.”  He says. “Which reminds me… thanks for burning me for real asshole!”  Lance snaps and smacks him. Keith glares at him.

“Hey you said make it look realistic!”

“Not actually burn me!  You’re a sadistic jerk!”

“I made it believable!”

“Yeah and Lotor made it worse!”  The two kept fighting. Shiro groans and looks back at the two in annoyance.

“Okay you two, knock it o-”  He notices something in the back.  The two boys stop and look back. They could see Makapu Village in the distance, they just backtracked.  They all groaned in unison.

“Well on we go… again.”  Shiro says as they kept flying north.  Keith sighs and opens the scroll. His eyes grew wide as Lance looks over.  The pirates handed him a scroll about the comet Trigel told him about. The Emporer’s comet…

* * *

A boat comes by to get Lotor and his generals, the boat was lead by Sendak.  He watches as they young prince walks up with his four generals following close behind.  All of them shivering in the cold, Narti let out a kitten sneeze and cuddles to Acxa.

Sendak walks next to Lotor and spoke with him.

“You failed yet again.”

“Silence.  We almost had him.”  He said. “We didn’t know-”

“You underestimate the Avatar.  That boy is the most powerful human on the planet.”  He tells the prince. “I say you should follow my plan if you wish to regain your honor.”  He says, Lotor looks at him with a sour look.

“And what are you suggesting?”  He asks with little care. Sendak smiles at the young prince.

“We attack the north.”


	13. The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two updates in a row!  
> This chapter was based off the episode "The Storm" which is one of my favorites in ATLA, so this chapter jumps back in forth from backstory to present day. Hope y'all like angst and painful backstories ;)

The group flies around the northern part of the Earth Kingdom.  Keith kept staring at the scroll about the Emporer’s Comet. It didn’t give him any idea on how to stop it, but he’ll find a way, it isn’t summer yet so he has time.

He looks at the others, Shiro was calm and Lance was trying to patch up his pants.  He grumbles at the hole.

“Look what you did!  This is going to be so hard to patch up.”  He says in a whiny voice. Keith rolls his eyes and looks back at the scroll, mostly to save himself from looking at Lance.  It failed miserably when Lance poked his face with his foot. “You ruined my only pair of pants!”

Keith swats Lance’s foot away, that didn’t stop him from poking his face.

“Knock it off.”

“Look at my ruined clothes.”  Lance says. “I can’t sew this.”  He looks at the hole defeated. Shiro looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

“You can sew?”

“Yeah, is that odd?”  Lance asks. Honestly, yes… it is odd that a boy knows how to sew.  Especially one from the Water Tribe. Men in the Water Tribe learn how to hunt and gather, how to fight and protect.  Women are the ones who learn how to cook and sew, be general caretakers. Apparently Lance can sew like a woman, he wonders what else he can do.

Keith was tracing his finger over the words on the scroll, he kept reading it over and over and he can’t figure out what to do about it.  Lance crawls over and reads over Keith’s shoulder.

“Emporer’s Comet huh?”  He grabs Keith’s shoulder and kept reading it.  “Is it important?” He asks, Keith didn’t look away when he answers.

“Yeah, it is.”  He kept tracing the letters.  “It can power up a firebenders ability.”  Shiro heard that and looks back.

“Do you think it can make someone as powerful as you?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.”  He tells them, he looked scared. He wonders if that could happen, if so then him becoming the Avatar seems useless.  Lance looks at the Avatar and gave his shoulder a squeeze, which told him to calm down and let his fears go. Keith sighs, he takes the comfort and relaxes a bit.

Shiro looks up and sees the clouds forming.  Lance also sees it and points.

“Shiro we should land.  It’s gonna rain.” He says, Shiro knows and nods.  He looks around, finding an area near the forest to hide out.  He sets up a tarp and lets everyone hide under it. Keith starts a fire, watching it flicker and crack.  Lance throws a nut in the fire, smiles at the popping noise it made. Shiro takes a berry from Keith’s bag and ate.

They were severely low on food, hopefully they’ll get to the north before they starve.  He watched the two boys, one bending the fire to make swirls while the other kept throwing things in it and watching it burn.  He smiles and watches the fire.

The team hasn’t had a chance to relax, now there they are… in the rain… as calm as ever.  Lance leans closer to the fire, Keith smirks and raises the flame causing Lance to squeak and jump back.  They were silent for a moment, then they all began to laugh. Moments like these made traveling worth it.

“Hey Keith, I have a question.”  Lance said. Keith looks down at him, waiting for him to ask.  “Well… how does it fear to be the Avatar?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does it feel different?  Like I guess Shiro can feel the air around him.  I’m sure firebenders feel the sun or fire, waterbenders feel the moon and the current, and earthbenders can feel the earth around them.”

“Well someone sure is smart for being a non bender.”  Shiro says with a smug smile, Lance chuckles nervously.

“I was just guessing.”  He admits. “But back to my question.  Does it feel different from that?” He asks, Keith looks over and shrugs.

“I’m not sure what you call different.  It depends on what I’m bending. I feel the heat in my body when I firebend, however when I airbend I can feel the air around me.  So by that logic I guess it’s the same as a normal bender, just all four.” Keith says.

Lance just looks at him, blue eyes wide and curious.

“How did you discover you were the Avatar?”

“What’s with the sudden questions?”  Keith asks with a chuckle. Lance shrugs, but a huge grin was on his face.

“Just curious.”

“Shiro was with me when I found out I was the Avatar.  He was getting attacked and I panicked, suddenly I was awake in a forest with him.  What had happened was a blur, but I remember airbending at the attackers.” Keith tells him, Lance just looked at him.

“Nothing before then?”  That made Keith give him a questioned look.  “I’ve heard that sometimes people can tell who the Avatar is due to them possessing skills far greater than a regular bender.”

“In our tribe we make kids pick four toys.”  Shiro says, Lance chuckles at that idea. It sounded so childish and innocent.  Keith just messes with his hair. He never knew about the Avatar nor did he really care till he discovered he was the Avatar himself.  Hell he didn’t even know a war was going on.

He watches the fire flicker again while the other two spoke about their homelands.  He waited for the night to come in and sleep to take them all.

* * *

“Daddy watch!  Watch!” Keith waves his arms and got his father’s attention.  Once he had it he bends a small flame from his hands. The six year old smiles proudly.  His father chuckles.

“That’s good Keith.”

“Watch watch!  I can also do this!”  He takes a deep breath then creates fire streams.  He smiles at his father to see his reaction, which was utter shock.  Not the reaction he thought he’d get. “Daddy?”

“Uh… oh … v-very good Keith.”  He rubs his head and gave praise to the child.  Keith quirks a brow. He was very confused by his father’s reaction, he thought his father would be proud to see him getting it down without a teacher.  Keith continued to practice his bending.

That night was odd, Keith watched his father pace back and forth, mumbling about something.  Keith didn’t understand though. Keith wonders if it’s about money, or maybe he’s trying to talk to his mom.  He told Keith his mother died after he was born.

Keith decided to leave his father to whatever he was worrying about and mess with the fire in his room.  Bending it around playfully. He smiles, wondering what else he could try doing. He looks over at the water pitcher in the kitchen, he quickly grabs it and brought it to the fire in his room, dumping it over the flame and putting it out.

“Now.”  He throws the empty pitcher and put his arms out.  He tried bringing the fire back to life. “Rise flame!”  He shouts happily… the fire didn’t come back to life. He pouts and kept trying to get it back but the flame didn’t rise.  He takes a deep breath and held his hand out, closing his eyes he concentrates.

Taking a different pose than what he normally does and tries to get the fire to rise.  He felt something different about his bending. He opens his eyes and was shocked that the water was rising.  Keith watches the water go up, finally it stops. He was curious, he slowly lifts his arm to see if what he’s thinking about was true.

The water follows the motion of his arm, going up with him.  He turns his hand slightly, the water fidgets a bit. He watches the water move with him.

“KEITH!”  He jumps at someone shouting his name.  The water falls back into the firepit. He looks over at his father with confused fear.  He wondered if he did something wrong.

“I-I’m sor-”  Before he could apologize his father pushed him out of the way and brought the fire back to life in one motion.  Keith just looked at his father like he was about to cry. He wanted to know what he did wrong.

His father saw his face and quickly hugged him.  He rubs his arms, trying to keep his son calm.

“It’s okay Keith, I’m not mad…”  He whispers. “Shhh, I’m sorry I yelled.”  He could hear Keith whimper, but he was calming down.  “Just never do that again. Promise?”

* * *

Keith shot up on the ground, breathing heavily and sweating.  He felt around his face, pushing his bangs back and letting his hands fall to the back of his neck, letting his hair fall back into place.

He sees his friends are sound asleep.  He sighs and got up and walked out of the tarp, it was still raining.  He lets the rain cool his skin, slowly lifting his head and closing his eyes.  Letting it hit his forehead. He looked back down, thinking about what he saw.

Did that really happen?  He barely remembers his childhood with his father, why now?  Why is it coming back now?

He stayed out until he felt sleep trying to take him again.  He gives in and plops down in the mud, too tired to care.

* * *

Lotor lays back on the ship and rests his eyes, hearing the sounds of his generals sleeping.  Except Narti, she was quiet… even in her sleep. But out of all of them you wouldn’t suspect Acxa being the loudest snorer.

He slowly fades into sleep, letting his dreams take him away.

* * *

“All done.”  Honerva looks at Lotor when he finally got his hair up in a top knot.  She smiles at him and grabbed his shoulders. “You look so handsome sweetheart.”  She says, he didn’t know if to smile or not.

“Thanks Mother.”  He said. She walks out with him so they could talk to their soldiers and celebrate their most recent victory.  He sits in his usual spot while Honerva sat next to Zarkon. They all spoke of war and victory, Lotor could care less.  He grew up knowing about victory, it’s becomes a blur of similar stories.

He sat there looking at everyone, wondering if they feel the same way.  Aren’t they tired of it? Tired of hearing the same thing?

“Prince Lotor?”  Someone got his attention.  He jumps and looks at the man who had his daughter next to him.  He was a general. “You have a comment about what we should do next?”

“Ah… um…”  Lotor looks at the map, he didn’t know what was going on.  He wasn’t paying attention at all. “I… I don’t know.” He responds honestly.  The general looks back at the map, ignoring Lotor.

He felt anxiety build up in his body, slowly looking at his father.  He was giving his son the most disappointed look ever. He looks back down, feeling tears burn his eyes.  He refused to cry.

When everything was over he walked back to his room to change into something more comfortable.  He stopped when he overheard his father speaking to one of his generals.

“Just give him more time My Lord, he is still young.”  The general said.

“And a disappointment.  Honestly, I don’t know why I consider him my son.  I feel like Honerva babies him too much, he should be a warrior, not the spineless wimp he has become.”

Lotor felt himself tear up, hearing his own father call him that.  It was mortifying, especially in his position. He is the prince, the future ruler of this great kingdom.  And his own father thinks he’s nothing but garbage.

He ran to his room and cried alone, no one will see him cry.  He isn’t weak, spineless, or anything. He’ll prove it, he’ll be a king his own father was proud of.  That’s all he wants, his father’s approval and love.

* * *

Lotor woke up, looking at the ceiling in surprise.  The rain crashing down on the ship, being the opposite of a lullaby.  He slowly touches the side of his face, tears… again. He sat up and groans, that was not a good way to wake up.

He sighs as he sat there, contemplating his past.  His life as a continuous failure. He raised his fingers to brush his cheek again.  Seeing that stupid tribesman with one made him remember his own shame.

The most shameful one was on his face, not his eye or anything, but his ear and cheek were severely burnt.  He can’t hear out of his right ear anymore, he brushed the makeup he cakes on his cheek to feel the ugly burn he got there, he is glad his skin is dark.  He can easily cover it up. But what’s the point? He’s ugly now, hideous and cursed with a scar to prove his shame. Not that he was ever considered beautiful anyways.  Damn what woman would want him now?

He sighs and feels the ruined skin, remembering how he got it.

* * *

Zarkon showed his plan to the council.  They all listened to their leader and went with his idea.  Lotor was watching while sitting next to Honerva. Ever since his father called him a disappointment he’s been doing his best to learn warfare and everything about being a king.  Still his father gives him no love, so his feelings became mutual, wanting nothing to do with his father. That’s the lie he believes in.

“We will send our troops here, and then we can send a group past them like this and continue our invasion on the Earth Kingdom.  After that we can go south.” Zarkon explained. The generals agreed with him, stating how they liked the idea. Lotor looks at the map with concern.

He notices something off about his father’s plan, that it didn’t seem right nor necessary.

“This plan is awful.”  He spoke up, everyone stops and looks at him.  His own father glaring at him. Honerva looking at her son like he was a fool.  He points at the map. “You’re sending these men into a massacre!”

“You can send more soldiers this way and prevent that loss!”

“And have many men die here?!”  Zarkon asks in anger.

“Better than having them die here for no reason!”

“Silence!  You no good fool!  You know nothing of war!”

“You are the fool!  Those soldiers are nothing more than children!  Sending them to an early death will do nothing but show how idiotic our ruler is!”  He shouts. “Do not send children to die!”

“They devoted their lives to the Fire Nation, they know that we go by victory or death.”

“This isn’t victory or death, this is murder!  This idea will make you look like a bigger fool than you already are!”  Lotor’s words came out before he could process them, his thoughts were clouded by emotions.

Zarkon glares at his son.  He storms over and slaps Lotor dead in the face.  He disrespected his father in front of his generals, made him look like a fool.  He grabs his hair and pulls him up.

“One punishment for this kind of behavior.”  He hisses. Lotor’s face went from anger to fear.  He knew of this punishment, many unloyal members of the council and generals have been.

That day many gathered in the arena, watching as Zarkon walked out ready to fight.  Lotor walks out too, looking at everyone. Zarkon starts to firebend. Lotor just stares at his father, slowly he shook his head.  Zarkon raised an eyebrow and just glares at his son.

“What are you doing?  Fight!”

“N-No I won’t!  I refuse to fight you Father!”  Lotor says, it was true, he didn’t want to fight.

“You stupid child!  Fight for your honor!”

“No!  Please listen Father!  I just spoke up for what I thought was best for the Fire Nation.  I never meant to speak out of turn!” Lotor pleas.

“Have you no honor?!  Fight me!”

“No!”  Lotor went on his knees and bows before his father.  “I am so sorry Father! I will never speak out of turn again, I am still loyal to you!”  He pleas. “Please, please believe me. I am a loyal son who will follow you without question!”  Everyone could see tears fall on the floor, Lotor was trembling, he was visibly sorry and at the mercy of his father.

Zarkon just stared his son down, he said nothing, nor did he seemed moved.  He just stood there, the whole audience was watching with bated breath. Finally he spoke.

“You… you will learn respect-”  He starts, Lotor slowly looks up, tears pooling out of his eyes and down his cheeks.  “-and suffering will be your teacher.” He firebends at his son.

* * *

Lotor hid his face in his hands, whimpering softly.  He tries to stay strong, but how can he? He wanted but love and approval and he ended up with a hideous face and banishment.  Life hates him, loves to watch him suffer. He wants to go back, wants his father to look at him like he was a normal human being.

Lotor felt someone pull him closer, he stops and looks over his shoulder to see Zethrid holding him close.  The bigger woman smiles at him, trying to comfort him. He felt the other girls crawl to him and hug him, trying to silence his tears.

Ezor was rubbing his hair, Acxa was drying the tears that rolled down his face, and Narti was curled into his chest trying to be a ball of comfort.  He looks at everyone in surprise, wondering what his generals were doing.

“You okay sire?”  Zethrid asks. He looks at her and slowly nods.

“Yes, I-I’m fine.”

“You know, you can tell us.”  Ezor chirps up. “We’ll be willing to listen.”

“It’s nothing to worry about.”  Lotor said. “Just a bad dream.”  He slowly felt his scar. Acxa grabs his hand and forces him to look at her so he could hear her.

“Lotor, just think about what you are going to accomplish.”  She says. “You will regain your honor, soon this scar will be nothing more than a badge of honor.  Showing the entire nation how foolish your father is.” Acxa’s words were encouraging enough. He smiles.

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.”  He says as he wraps his arms around the small girl still curled on him.  She smiles as she felt Lotor calm down. “Why did you all come comfort me?”

“Because we’re girls, when one of us cries we all need to come up and see what’s up and stop the crying at all costs.”  Ezor said. “We look out for one another, whether a man or another woman, it’s just how we are.” She goes to his good ear and whispers.  “We love you Lotor, whether you are a banished man or not. You will always be our friend.”

Lotor smiles, he sighs and leans against Zethrid, all his friends cuddling to him.

“I love you girls too.”

* * *

Blood, that’s all Keith saw.  He looked at the soldier who tried grabbing him.  He saw how Keith bended and tried to take him, his father came in and murdered the man in cold blood.  He didn’t even bend as much as he bashed the soldier’s skull in with a rock. Keith looks at his father.  He ran to him and hugged his leg, his father calmed down slowly and looks at his son.

He picks him up and ran home.  They hid in one room, his father hugging him close.

“I promise Keith, no one will ever take you away.”  He said. “Promise me one thing Keith.” He starts, Keith listens with big eyes.  “Promise me you’ll never show your full potential. Hold back your bending.” He says, Keith was confused but nods.  Outside the rain began to fall and quickens.

* * *

Keith woke up, now drenched due to the rain and one side coated with mud.  It quickly washed off. He was looking around in a panic. He stood up and held his head, feeling his wet hair go through his fingers.

Lightning crashed around him, he jumps and began to run.  Ran from whatever was haunting him. He ran into a cave and crouched down, he buries his face in his elbows, fingers running through his dark hair.  He felt himself cry, remembering the storm that day. How hard it rained and how hard listening to the storm was when he was left alone. The memory he thought was long gone, came back and haunted him.

* * *

The soldiers came in and quickly arrested his father for murder of an authority figure, Keith stayed hidden.  Watching them beat him down and knock him out. Blood dripping from his head. Keith held his mouth and whimpered in it.  He couldn’t stand watching his father get beaten. It home was lightened up by the lightning crashing down, scaring the poor child.

A soldier thought he heard something so he walked into the room.  He saw the window in the bedroom was knocked out by a powerful hit with a rock.  He had no clue who was small enough to fit through the small hole yet powerful enough to knock a window out with just a rock.

Keith sat outside his house, passed out.  He freaked out and in a panic went into some odd trance, whatever he did it took a lot out of him.

That was the last time he ever saw his father.

* * *

Keith’s crying turned into wailing, he was scared.  The lightning was frightening him, making him see that image of his father bleeding out of his head.  Looking like he was dead. His lament’s could be heard through the rain.

Just then something warm covers him, he didn’t notice at first, still a mess of tears and screaming.  Then someone pulls him into their arms. Another one rubbing his back, soothing him. Keith slowly stops and looks around.

He sees Lance was the one holding him, wrapping a blanket around him to dry him off and keep him warm.  Shiro was was rubbing his back and trying to sooth him the best he could. Black right outside the cave, staring at him.

“You okay now?”  Lance asks. “You were screaming.”

“I-I…”  Keith didn’t respond.  Shiro squeezed his shoulders.

“The storm woke us up, then we noticed you were missing.  Soon enough Lance and I heard you screaming, Black was the one who lead us to you though.”  He says. Keith looks at Black and gave the bison a soft smile.

“Thanks Black.”  He said quietly. Black made a low noise happily.  He felt Shiro put something around his neck. He looks down and sees the necklace Lance gave him.  He slowly reaches up and rubs the stones. He didn’t know that was a comfort for him now.

Lance chuckles and brought him closer in his arms, running his fingers through his wet hair as he soothed him.  Shiro leans against him, trying to hug him. He felt warm being sandwiched between these two. He smiles and buries his face in the blanket, head against Lance’s neck.  He felt himself grow calmer, his family calming him through the storm. His father’s horrid image slowly going away.

Soon enough the storm stopped, all three looked out and slowly walked out.  Keith kept the blanket around his shoulders, wearing it like a cloak. Shiro keeping a hand on his back while Lance walked next to him.  They smiled as the sun greeted them, all three standing side by side. Shiro rubs Keith’s back while Lance leans an arm on his shoulder, staring at the sky happily.

It was a warm and calming moment.  Black walks up next to them and stares at the sky with them, then proceeds to shake the water off.  The team jumps back and laughs, complaining to the bison, asking him if that was necessary.


	14. The Team Trial

The northern end of the Earth Kingdom was slightly colder, none of the boys really seemed to care though.  Lance actually welcomed the cool air, though he was now so use to the warmer climate he’s lived in for weeks.  He stares at the northern waters, soon he’ll be home. In a place familiar, a place full of similar people.

He looks over at Shiro and Keith who were talking about how to cross the water peacefully without the north freaking out.  Keith suggested they show Lance, Shiro says bad idea cause then it’d look like they were holding him hostage.

Lance does what he usually does when he’s bored and throws rocks at the water, Black sitting next to him.  He leans against the fluffy bison and sighs.

“You ready for the north Black?”  Lance asks. The bison just looks at him.  “You’ve got fur so you’ll be warm…” Black makes a low noise at Lance and looks back at the water.  “It’s so far from my home.”

“I wonder if they’ll take me in…”  Lance looks down at the water, at his own reflection.  He feels scared that they won’t accept him. That they’d be upset that he grew to trust someone from the Fire Nation, even though he’s the Avatar.

He saw Shiro coming up to sit next to him, flashing him a kind smile.

“You okay?”

“Yeah…”

“You’re end of the deal here is coming up.  You think you can get us in?”

“I have no doubt I can get you in.”  Lance said. “It’s Keith I’m worried about.”  He looks over at the Avatar, who was riding around on an airscooter, seeing how fast he can go.  “The Water Tribe has been in this war for a long time, we’ve suffered so much due to being their opposite.”

“You have a great advantage over the Fire Nation.”  Shiro says. “Listen, I don’t want to stress you out… but I want you to make sure you can get us in.”

“O-Okay.”  Lance nods.  “Do you think they’ll help Keith?”

“If they’re anything like you then I’m sure they’ll be more than helpful.”  Shiro pats Lance’s shoulder and walks away. “Keith knock it off you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Says you!”  As soon as Keith said that he fell over, Shiro laughed at him.  Keith got up and climbed on top of Black. The other two thought he gave up.  Next thing you know the hollow ball they played airball with came out and hit Shiro hard in the gut.  Keith pops up from Black and laughs at the older man.

Shiro glares at Keith, he held the ball up and launched it back at Keith.

“Oh shit.”  Keith jumps off Black and ran around, the two launching the ball back and forth.  Lance almost got hit about five times before he decided to hide himself.

“Yeah I want to live to see another day so… I’ll hide in the water.”  Lance says. “Sound like a plan?” He looks at the bison, he makes a noise of approval.

Lance got up and began to take off his clothing, cause like hell he’s gonna go to the north in wet clothes.  Keith launched the ball at Shiro, while the Air Nomad recovered from the hit he looks over to see what the other team member was doing, he then proceeded to watch Lance.  He seemed so slim and tiny, but take away that and he’s actually well built, looking more like a dancer. Long legs, thin arms, and hips that were far to defined to belong to a man-

The ball comes back and knocks into Keith’s face hard, he fell back due to the impact.  Shiro laughs at him while Lance just looked over in mild confusion.

“Don’t get distracted now!”  Shiro says through his laughter.  Lance walked up to him and looks down to see if he’s okay.

“You okay?”  He asks. Keith’s face blew up a crimson color and he jumps back.

“Fi-”  His voice cracked again, he clears his throat.  “Fine, I-I’m fine!” He tried to sound cool and collected but it failed miserably when Shiro kept laughing at him.  Keith pouts and looks at him. He launched the ball back with force, Shiro flew back due to the impact.

“Well you two have fun.”  Lance runs towards the ocean and dives right in.  Keith watched Lance again, Shiro trips him. Then points at laughs at him.  Keith got up and firebends at him. Shiro yelps and runs away.

“You crazy Avatar!”  Keith ran away from the tank that is Shiro.  The two fought each other while Lance swam around avoiding conflict.  Black watches the two fight around. A bystander was walking around and Keith hits him.  Both boys stopped when the bystander slowly looks over at them.

“Which one of you threw this at me?”  He asks in a low voice. Keith ran towards the ocean and jumps in the water to hide.  The man slowly puts his hood down, he looked like he was from the Fire Nation himself.  He held the ball up and looks over.

“That boy airbended, did he not?”

“He did.”  Shiro nods.  The man brushes his grey mohawk back and looks over at the water.

“So it’s true, the Avatar has returned.”  He smiles. “I am glad I finally found you guys.  I was told you were traveling to the north and I was to check on you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, my name is Ulaz.  I am a Marmorain.” He says, Shiro was confused.  He had to ask.

“Kolivan sent you?”

“Yes, he sent me a message via pigeon and told me to come find you boys, saying you’d be north by now.”  He looks at around. “Where is the tribesman? He is your ticket in, is he not?” He asks, Shiro nods.

“Yeah, he was swimming.  Don’t worry, I’m sure Keith will hop out as soon as he sees him and, knowing Lance, he will most likely follow.”

“So his name is Lance.”  Ulaz kept that in mind. Like Shiro said, Keith hops out of the water, face red with embarrassment.  Lance pokes his head out and stares at him.

“Are you feeling well?”  He asks, Ulaz looks at Lance, he looks back.  “Who’s this guy?”

“A Marmorian, Ulaz.”  He says. “Don’t worry Keith, he isn’t mad at you.”

“Really?”  Keith asks while hiding behind Black.

“A little mad actually.”  Ulaz says. “I am mostly relieved I found you.  Kolivan gave me the task almost two weeks ago. I have been walking for days.”  He tells them, Keith nods. Lance walks over with a blanket around his body. “You must be the tribesman Lance.”

“That’s me.”  Lance said, he looks at him.

“Kolivan did an awful job describing you.”  Ulaz said, Lance cocks his head to the side.  He wanted to know how Kolivan described him, however Ulaz kept talking.  “So how are you three?” Black makes a low noise, Ulaz gave the bison a look.

“Black wants you to include him.”  Shiro says, Black makes a quiet noise and runs into Shiro’s hand so he could be petted.  

“Oh sorry.  How are you four?”  Ulaz asks, now including Black.

“We’re fine.”  Keith says. “We were going to the Northern Tribe now.”

“Looked like you were playing to me.”  He says, Keith stops a bit and looks down.  Yeah, what he was doing was very childish. Lance snuck up behind him and wraps his arms and legs around him.  Keith panics and ran around, trying to get Lance off his back, Lance only laughs.

Shiro decides to speak to Ulaz seeing as how those two were currently occupied with something.  He looks at the rather unamused Marmorian.

“Give them a break, they’re kids.”  Shiro tells him.

“That boy looks like he should have a wife by now, and Keith is the Avatar.  He should be taking this more seriously.” Ulaz sounded strict. Shiro shook his head, trying to get the older man to understand.

“You don’t understand.  Keith’s never had friends like this.  This is the first time Keith can actually be with people he can hang out with.”  Shiro says to defend Keith. He doesn’t know how he can defend Lance, he doesn’t know Lance’s story.

Now that Shiro thought about it he didn’t know much about Lance.  He knew that he is very family oriented, lost his father at a young age, takes on more of a nurturing role.  Likes the moon for some odd reason, and he’s a skilled fighter with a boomerang.

Nothing about Lance’s past, what his interests are, nothing like that.  And there he was, clinging to an overly embarrassed Avatar.

“Let me go!”

“Never!  Surrender Mullet!”  He says in a cruel voice.  Keith began to fall back, Lance feels this and squeaks.  “No, MERCY!” He says before Keith falls on top of him. He groans in discomfort, wanting the heavy body off of him.  Shiro runs over and tries pulling Keith off of Lance.

“No, this is what he deserves.”

“You can’t lay on him like that.”

“He deserves this.”

“How are you so heavy?!”  Lance squeaks.

Ulaz gave the whole group a look.  Watching how they were acting and treating each other.

“What a mess.”

“Hm?”  They look at him.

“Clearly you three-”  A low noise cuts him off, Ulaz groans.  “My bad, four, clearly you four don’t show the same type of respect us Marmorians show one another.  You are not ready to go to the north like this.” He was blunt.

The group just stares at Ulaz in confusion, this is how they always acted.  They don’t hate each other, sure they hate the situations they get in, like Lance at the moment, but never at each other.  They get mad at them for making dumb decisions and maybe leaving the other out. But they’ve made progress after being together for weeks, so much that they consider themselves a small, stupid family.

“I see that a bonding exercise is in order.  A good old fashioned Marmorian trial that Trigel started.”  He says, the whole team just stared at him, wondering what they were going to do.  “Follow me.”

* * *

“Why are we on a boat?”  Keith asks in an angered and impatient tone.  Shiro was petting Black while Lance was sunbathing.  Shiro kept telling Lance that if he isn’t careful he’d get sunburned, Lance didn’t listen and continued to sit in the sun like a lizard.

“We are going to do an exercise.”  Ulaz said again, Keith raised an eyebrow.  That wasn’t answering his question. Almost like reading his mind, Ulaz answered him.  “You must learn patience Avatar. You are going to need it to master the remaining elements.”  He tells him, Keith’s tongue clicked.

“I learned airbending just fine.  Shiro said I learned airbending quickly.”  He reminds Ulaz, who looked unimpressed.

“Yes, it is not your opposing element.”  He said, Keith just looks at him.

“Opposing?”

“Like the seasons, the elements are contrasting to one another.  For Trigel, she had a hard time learning air. Cause she was born of spring, air is autumn.  You were born of summer, so your hardest will be-” He wanted Keith to finish, he thought and nods.

“Winter.”  He says, then it clicked.  “Are you telling me water is going to be the hardest for me?”

“It is just something that has happened to the past Avatars, I cannot say for sure with you.  But if you are anything like your element then it is a high possibility.” Ulaz said as they steered the boat around a few rocks.

Keith grumbles and messes with the stones on the necklace again, trying to calm down.  How can you not be like your element? Keith thought about the other elements, thinking of how they feel to him and what personality he can think of.  He only has air and knows only one Air Nomad.

Shiro, he was a good leader, calm and collected.  Someone who enjoys being near others, Keith sighs.  Shiro sounds nothing like his element… but in some ways it was perfect for him.  Air is freedom, something peaceful. That sounded good for Shiro, almost a perfect match.

“We are here.”  Ulaz said. “Alright you four listen up.”  He turns to them. “This exercise is called the raging river-”

“Oh God we have something like this in the Water Tribe.”  Lance said in fear.

“Oh?  Then you explain it young tribesman.”  Ulaz gave Lance the floor.

“It’s a coming of age for people in my tribe, if you would like to become a warrior then you must go down the river and dodge icecaps and work together as a crew, like you would with your fellow soldiers.”  He said. Ulaz nods, he was impressed.

“Very good boy.  You’ve done this before?”  He asks, Lance shook his head.

“I’m not a warrior.”  He said, gesturing to his head.  Ulaz didn’t seem to get that the men of the Water Tribe get the wolf cut if they were a warrior.  Lance sighs and explains it to him, Ulaz finally understood, giving him a nod.

“So that’s what we’re doing?”  Shiro asks.

“Yes, but with one exception.”  Ulaz looks them. “You may not bend while going down the path.”  All the boys froze. Not being able to bend at all? That was practically cruel.  Ulaz continued on to explain why they couldn’t bend. “All the Marmorians had to do this and they are all non benders.  If we can do it and live then this shouldn’t be a problem for you four.” He says.

For Lance, that shouldn’t be a problem, as for the rest… this was going to be rough.

“Now get ready, I will not be helping you in any of this.  Make it out alive.” He says and lets go of the wheel of the boat, Lance panics as he does that and took the wheel.

“ARE YOU CRAZY?!”  He shouts. “HAVE SOMEONE COME OUT HERE FIRST!”

“You weren’t ready.”  Ulaz said.

“NO SHIT!”  Lance snaps.  He looks over at the other two.  “Okay so have you guys ever been on a boat?”

“That pirate ship.”  Keith said, Shiro nods as in he was with Keith on that.  Lance groans, so he’s the only one who’s been on a boat.

“Great…”  He says. “Okay, here’s the plan.  Shiro, you steer this thing.”

“Why me?”

“It’s no different from Black.”  Before Shiro could argue, cause how dare Lance compare his best friend to a boat, Lance pulls him over and soon enough he was steering the boat.  “Okay, Black you help keep the boat balanced. If we’re leaning to one side you go to the other.” He instructs, Black makes a noise in understandment.  “Keith, you and I are going to do everything else.”

“Everything else?”

“Yeah, we’re look out, also we’re going to turn this so we can go with the wind.”  Lance says to Keith, the Avatar was a little concerned to do this. Not being allowed to bend made him anxious.  It’s like not being able to breath to Keith, curse him for being the Avatar.

The group did what Lance assigned them to do, seeing as how he knew the most about boats.  While the water picked up Lance and Keith turned the boat’s mast away from the wind and they picked up speed.  They squint their eyes to avoid the water getting in, Shiro uses one arm to block his face, Black was uncomfortable, Ulaz was standing there casually, like this was nothing.

“So how do you know so much about boats?”  Keith asks while they kept going at the high speed.

“I don’t know that much, my brother told me about them because he was a warrior.  But I’ve gone fishing for food with my siblings. They taught me everything they knew.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the youngest aren’t you?”

“That’s right.”  Lance says as he turns the mast.  Keith went with him and decided to keep asking questions.

“So how many siblings do you have?”

“Why do you want to know?”  Lance had to ask.

“Just wonderin-ROCK!”  He shouts.

“SHIRO RIGHT!”  Lance calls to Shiro, he turns the wheel like a madman.  They avoided it and kept going through the water, they breathed in relief.  “Counting my sister-in-law? I have two sister and two brothers.” He answered Keith.  “My sister is the closest to me age wise, so she played with me a lot when we were little.”

“What about your brothers?”

“My brothers were protective of me, since I was the youngest.”  Lance turns the mast again, Keith followed, keeping his eyes on Lance while other kept looking at the water.  “So they kept me out of doing a lot of dangerous things, my brother wasn’t happy that I took his place in that fight.”  He tells Keith.

“If they saw what I was doing now, they’d be freaking out, heh… I’m sure my Mom would be upset.”  He says happily. “ROCK ON MY SIDE!” Shiro turned the other way.

“WHY THE HELL AM I STEERING?!”

“BECAUSE I SAY SO!”  Lance shouts. “TRUST ME FOR A SECOND!”  Keith looks at Shiro and nods.

“I THINK IT’S SMART WE LISTEN SHIRO!  LANCE CAN’T BEND AND KNOWS MORE ABOUT BOATS!”  He tells the older man. Shiro groans and kept steering.  Meanwhile Ulaz was watching, like he was judging their teamwork.

“But yeah, since my brother was in charge of the family after Dad died… I was treated like a child, so I mainly helped my sister-in-law with my nephews.”  He said. Keith looks over at Lance, actually nodding in agreement. He wasn’t surprised to hear Lance was near kids a lot. He’s very good with them, good at comforting them and playing with them.

“You’re going to be a good father.”  Keith accidentally said out loud, he froze up as soon as he said it.  Lance started to laughed.

“Spirits, I hope so.”  He says, his smile looking so sweet and calm despite them going about eighty miles an hour.  Keith felt something warm bubble in his chest, he smiles at Lance and went back to looking at the water.

Shiro kept steering, finally getting into the groove of what to look for.  Black was walking back and forth whenever needed. Keith would follow Lance’s motion whenever he turned the mast.  Ulaz was impressed by their teamwork. When put into danger then they were a good team.

However the shore was still far away, and the worst was yet to come.

The rocks suddenly increased and all three boys, and a bison, panicked.  They steered like crazy, calling to Shiro which way to go.

“RIGHT!”

“NO LEFT!”

“FUCK BACK RIGHT!”

“DON’T GO LEFT!”

“WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!”  Shiro shouts. The two boys ended up screaming in fear… and now Ulaz sees what happens when they are under pressure.  At least they were still working together.

Finally the rocks cleared, somewhat.  There were still some rocks here and there.  Lance moves the mast a bit and smiles.

“I’m gonna go look around to see if we could find a shoreline.”  He says. “Once we do that then we pass the trial.” Keith nods, Lance runs off and tries to find a shoreline.  Keith was still on the lookout for rocks. Shiro was still steering, and Black finally sat down and relaxed.

Lance looks over and saw a shoreline.  He smiles and jumps.

“Shiro!  Shoreline!  Go there!”

“Where?”

“Northwest!  I think it’s north…”  Lance said. “Whatever, it’s that way.”

“Okay.”  Shiro started turning east.

“I SAID WEST!”

“I THOUGHT THIS WAS WEST!”

“NO IT ISN’T!”  Lance shouts. “YOU ARE HORRIBLE WITH DIRECTIONS!”  Keith tries to help by turning the mast, that wasn’t doing anything.  Shiro started turning the other way, though the boat was too far east.  Going straight into a pile of rocks. Lance ran down and looks at the rocks.

Keith tried to move the mast, Shiro steered like his life depended on him, Black woke up due to the panic.  Ulaz watches them try to fix the mess they got themselves into. The boat was turning but the side was going to hit the rocks.

Then, out of nowhere, a large wave comes up and moves them away from the wall and towards the shoreline, the whole boat was almost on it’s side due to the wave.  The group screams as they moved and tried to keep the boat afloat, then everything was calm. Keith and Shiro stare at each other and sigh. It was all over.

“OW!”  They jumped and looked over, Ulaz grabbed Lance’s arms and pinned him on the ground.  Giving him a very angered look.

“I saw that!”  He snaps. “You can’t fool me!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”  Lance glared at him.

“You got the boat out of the way!  You bended!”

“What?!”  Lance was confused.  Shiro and Keith ran up and stopped him.  Shiro got Ulaz off, Lance was free and ran to Black.  Glaring at Ulaz for the random attack.

“Ulaz calm down!”

“There was no other way, unless the Avatar did it!”  Ulaz shouts as he got out of Shiro’s grasp. “And I know he cannot waterbend.”

“Neither did Lance, he’s a non bender!”  Keith said, Ulaz just looks over at Lance.  He was staring him down while hiding in the bison.  “Believe us, he cannot bend. That’s why we’re taking him to the north, so he’ll be safe.”

Ulaz just stared him down, Lance felt uncomfortable and held up a boomerang in defense.  Shiro walks over to comfort him while Keith kept talking to Ulaz. The tension was real on the boat.

“Lance, just tell him you can’t bend.”  Shiro said. Lance held up his boomerang.  “No, do not tell him through violence.” Shiro lowered his arm.  He sighs and walks over to Ulaz, Lance crawled onto Black and glares.

“Look you’ve got to believe us.  We’ve been with him for almost a month.  He cannot bend at all.” Shiro tells him, Ulaz just stares at the two.

“You two seem set on defending him.”  He says, the two nod. They were going to defend him, because Lance didn’t do anything and it seems unfair that he’s getting accused for something he didn’t do.  Ulaz sighs and looks at the two.

“Okay, fine.”  He says. “If you say he cannot bend, then I’ll believe it for now.”  Ulaz looks at Lance. “Plus he did lead you two towards the shoreline.”  He says, Lance still had his boomerang held up. Keith walked over and put his arm down.

“So what’ll happen when we get to the shore.”

“Get us to the shore and we’ll talk.”

* * *

As soon as they were on land Keith jumps down and lays on the sand.  He was happy to be off the boat. Lance was still on Black, who hasn’t moved from the boat.

“Well I’ve got to say, I’ve underestimated your teamwork.  I’m very impressed.” He says, for the first time he smiled.  “As a reward for you thre-four. Four.” He looks at Black. “I will take you all to the north.”  They smile, Keith lifts his head from the sand.

“Do we have to go back on the boat?”  He asks, Ulaz nods. Keith groans and flops his head back in the sand.  Everyone laughs and got on the boat, Shiro dragged Keith by his leg to get him back on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want sleep, I want homework to end, and I want to stop being so stressed! However this stress I've been feeling has been helping me type this story and getting chapters done at great speed! Yay!!! Well I hope you enjoy this chapter~


	15. Made it North

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of book one. Book two will be out soon, so if you are interested then be on the look out. I'm sorry this first part is so short, I promise that nothing will be this short again. Enjoy and I'll see you in book two.

The boat was small when you have to stay on it for a bit and not panic about steering and not dying.  It was a slow ride to the north, but if the team was being honest they don’t mind it. Rest and relaxation, also Ulaz had food and everyone was starving.

They all fell asleep on the boat, Shiro stayed out with Black and slept on the outside while everyone else went to the bottom deck.  The next morning Lance walked out and buttoned his coat up. He walks over to Shiro, who was sitting next to Black.

“It’s getting colder out here.”  He points out. Shiro nods happily.

“That means we are getting close.”  He says. Lance nods. “You excited?”

“A little nervous.”  He admits. “But I’m so excited to be somewhere familiar, to be home.”  He says. Shiro nods, the two sat in silence till they heard Keith come out.

“God now it’s cold.”  He was pulling his pants on and went to Black to find his coat.  Lance looks at him and smiles.

“Oh be quiet, I still have a hole in my pants.”

“Quit complaining about the past.”  Keith said in a playful tone. Lance stuck his tongue out and watched as they kept sailing.  Ulaz walks up on deck and went to the wheel.

“Morning gentlemen.”  He looks at them. “You ready to go?”

“Team Keith is ready.”  Shiro salutes, Ulaz nods.

“Good.”  He started steering.  “We’ll be near the shore in one day’s time.”  He tells them, the team cheers. They were so close to the end of their long journey.

* * *

“Shiro!  Keith!” Lance started pointing at the icebergs.  The two looked over and nod, it wasn’t that exciting to them.  Keith went back to looking at his drawings while Shiro kept petting Black.  Lance huffs and went to touch an iceberg, the cool ice burnt at his fingertips.  He loved it, missed it.

The closer they got, the more at home he felt.  Ulaz looks over at Lance and spoke to him.

“Be careful tribesman.  You are our ticket in.”

“I know.”  Lance said.  “You can trust me, I am as graceful as a danceEEEK!”  His arm slid under him and he about fell in. Keith ran over and grabbed his arm before he fell in.  Lance was pulled back. Keith started to chuckle as soon as he was back.

“You were saying?”

“Silence.”  Lance put his finger to Keith’s cheek.  Shiro laughs at the two and went back to petting Black.  Ulaz sighs and kept going.

The day was going by slowly.  Lance was back touching icebergs again while the other two went back to doing other things.  Shiro was making little air tricks with his bending while Keith was drawing. Keith was so invested in what he was doing so he didn’t notice Shiro leaning down and watching him.

Shiro chuckles and that’s when Keith noticed, he looks over and jumps back.  Holding the journal close.

“GAH!  SH-SHIRO!”  He snaps. Shiro was laughing.

“What’s that you’re drawing?”  He teases. “Looks like a certain someone~”  Keith’s face turned a bright crimson color and he scoots back and kept the drawing out so it can dry.  Cause like hell he wants to ruin his masterpiece.

Shiro took the journal and held it high, Keith panics and jumped at it.

“Shiro!”  He whines.  “Give it back!”

“Keith’s in love~  Keith’s in love~” Shiro started singing.

“SHIRO!”  He cried and kept trying to get the journal.  The older man pushed Keith’s head down and ran off with it.  “I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! GIVE IT BACK!” He tried to sound aggressive, but you can still hear the panic in his voice.

Shiro was laughing at Keith and ran away, while Keith ran after him.  Keith was so distracted that he didn’t notice Shiro dropped it. Keith tackles him and kept him down, Shiro was still laughing.

Lance looks down at his feet and picks up the journal.  He just stares at it, recognizing who’s it is.

“I wanna peek.”  Lance said with a smile.  Keith shrieks and ran at Lance.  Swiping the journal from him, Lance jumps back then pouts.  Keith held his journal to his chest and glares at everyone.

“You monsters stay away from my journal!”  He says and runs to Black to hide his journal in the bag.  He trusts no one now.

“I wanna see!”  Lance said.

“NO!  NEVER!”  Keith shouts.  Shiro snickers behind Lance, pointing and laughing at him.  Keith held his hand out and showed fire to Shiro, that shuts him up quickly.  Lance pouts and walks off while Shiro walks with him.

The group kept trying to fill their freetime with something, mainly idle chit chat, or being Keith, hiding away from others cause people suck.

“You know, if we weren’t on a boat…”  Lance starts. “We’d be helping someone right now, and be doing something.”  He says. Shiro just nods and watches the water.

“Don’t worry, we’ll land soon.”  He says. “Hey Keith! Want to come down?”  A heavy bag hit Shiro in the face. Shiro glares at him then back at Lance.  “Ulaz said we’d be there in a day.”

“I wanna be somewhere now!”  Lance whines. “I’m bored! Keith come hang out!”

“I trust no one!”  Keith shouts. Lance ran up and tried to talk to him.  “Get away from me! I will fight you!” As soon as Keith said that Lance tackled him down.

The two wrestled to the ground, Ulaz and Shiro watched them wrestle.  Ulaz looks back at the older man to ask what is going on. Shiro answered him.

“Um… they’re friends.”  He says. “This is how friends act, trust me.”  He tells him. The two kept fighting.

“How much longer till they stop?”

“Um… sometimes a bit, other times… it’ll take a while.”  He says as the two kept fighting. Ulaz kept steering around the icebergs, it’s slow and painful to wait on the stupid boat.  Maybe if they were on Black it’d be faster because they wouldn’t have to swerve past icebergs every five seconds.

But Ulaz offered them a ride, and they took him up the offer.  Why turn down his hospitality, and Black needed a break. His best buddy has been through a lot since they started this journey.

“Are you two done yet?”  Shiro asks the two who were fighting.

“Shiro help!”  Lance squeaks. “He has me pinned!”

“Tough.”  Shiro said.  Lance gave him a pathetic look.  Shiro sighs and tried to help, as soon as he got close Keith airbended him off.

“Way to be helpful!”  Lance shouts, he got his legs under Keith and kicks him off.  He squirms off and runs below deck. Keith recovered and ran after him.  Ulaz groans and kept sailing. He saw Shiro was back on and airbended himself dry.

“Impressive.”  He comments at the Air Nomad, Shiro smiles at him and leans against Black.  Waiting for them to get to the north.

* * *

“Well gentlemen.”  Ulaz says out loud.  “We have reached your destination.”  That got all three to look up in excitement.  The gate to the north was grand, the wall large and ready to defend and attack.  They stopped the boat and just stared at the gate blocking entrance.

“Finally.”  Keith breaths.  “We made it.”

“Took us long enough.”  Shiro comments. Lance nods and leans against the older man, just looking at the gate happily.  He was home.

“We’re not in yet, we still need to find a way to let them know we mean peace.”  Ulaz says. All three look at him. “They take one look at Keith and they’ll think it’s an attack.  So if we want to get the Avatar in we’re going to have to show them we are a peaceful group and do not wish to fight.”

They all looked at each other, forgetting that small detail that the Avatar was a Nomad to the Fire Nation.  Black makes a low noise, like he had a suggestion, however since no one understood him fully they took it as the bison complaining.

“So what do we do?”  Lance asks. Ulaz thought for a bit.

“What if we drop you in and you can explain it.”

“They see Black and they might attack.”  Shiro says. Ulaz looks at Black, instructing to fly.  Black went up and flew over the wall. The group waited…

Black quickly comes back down and lands on the boat with a thud.  Everyone screams when the boat rocks. Shiro looks at his friend and goes to him, he’s never seen Black move so fast in all his life.

“Buddy?  You okay?”  He pets his head, Black pushes against Shiro.  Seeking comfort. Poor bison was trembling. “What did they do to you?”

“From the looks of it they scared him.”  Keith states the obvious. Shiro gave him a look and went back to helping his friend calm down.  Lance looks at the gate and knocks. Nothing.

“How the heck are we gonna get in?”  He asks. “If Black can’t get us over, and clearly knocking isn’t working.  What do we do?”

“Well one way or another I’m getting in.”  Keith says. “We’ve traveled way too far to turn back.”  He tells the group.

“If we can’t get in-”  Ulaz spoke up but Keith cuts him off.

“No!  I’m here to take Lance home and to find someone to teach me how to waterbend!”  He says. “We are getting in there!”

Everyone else looks at one another, then back at Keith with a nod.  He was determined to get in and by the spirits he’s gonna get in.

“So we need an idea.”  Ulaz said. “Someone got one?”

“I could bang on the gate and yell let me in.”  Lance said. Ulaz just looks at Lance like he was nuts.

“No… that’s a horrible idea.”  He says. “You’d sound like a hostage.”

“Okay, any other ideas?”  Lance asks. They all thought about what to do.  Honestly they were stumped. They didn’t think it was locked up and trying to kill everything that came at them.  Black makes a noise again, Shiro only pats his head and kept talking.

“Maybe Keith could melt the door.”

“Oh sure, make me look like an attacker.”  Keith snaps.

“Well I don’t hear you giving us any ideas.”

“Fly over.”

“No.”  Shiro says.  “Come up with a better idea.”

“HEY OPEN THE DOOR PLEASE!”  Lance shouts. “PRETTY PLEASE!  WE’RE NICE PEOPLE!”

“Said every heartless murderer to ever live.”  Keith comments. Lance pouts and looks away. “Any other suggestions?”

“Well Lance had the idea.”  Shiro said. “We need to show we have one of their own people so they can let us in.”

“Because that isn’t suspicious.”  Ulaz comments.

“That’s one reason we brought him along.”

“Yeah, I said I’d put in a good word for Keith.”  Lance says. “So they need to see me, and hopefully they’ll take me…”

“The Water Tribe is known for its hospitality.”  Ulaz says.

“Clearly.”  Shiro sighs.  “So you want us to get in, how?”

“Maybe I should go with Keith?”  Lance wraps an arm around Keith and looks at Shiro.  “If they we’re friends, they’ll let us.” That idea was good, but not that good.

“What if they think Keith is forcing you to cooperate.”  Ulaz said.

“Well we can’t just sit here and think of “what if”s!  We need to get in there!” Lance says. The others agree.

“He’s right.”  Shiro says. “We can’t give up and think of the bad things that’ll happen.”  He looks at everyone. “We need an idea and stick with it.”

Keith thought of something, a plan that was crazy but it might work.  He grabs Lance and throws him on Black. He hops on himself and with a yip yip they flew up.  Lance shrieks as Keith absconded with him.

Shiro and Ulaz stood there quietly, trying to contemplate what just happened.  Keith thought of something and went with it, without telling the rest of the group.  No he just went with the first idea that popped in his head.

Black makes it over the wall, Lance looks down and sees all the citizens pointing at Black and like last time, soldiers came out and attacked him.  Keith airbends the weapons away. They waterbended after that. Keith blocked it and thus Black landed.

Everyone backed off, soldiers came around and held their weapons out.  Keith looks at all of them. They freaked out, a Fire Nomad came in, and he didn’t look friendly.  Lance looks over and waves. Keith grabs him and held a fire to his face, Lance squeaks.

“Alright… listen up!”  Keith sounded serious. "You will all surrender yourself to the Fire Nation or this boy gets it!”  He growls. Lance just looks at him.

“Keith, what are you doing?!”

“Shut up and trust me.”  Keith whispers. Lance looks at everyone, they were about to kill him.  He held the fire close to Lance’s face. “So what is it gonna be?” He asks, everyone looks at one another then back at him.

A soldier began to chant.

“We won’t surrender!”  He shouts, everyone began to cheer.  Keith smirks and made the fire bigger.

“If you say so, let this be a reminder to all who oppose the Fire Lord.”  He says and brings the fire closer. Lance could feel it touching his cheek.  A few spears came at him, Keith immediately airbends them away. Everyone steps back, wondering how he just did that.

Keith felt himself chuckle, then it grew to laughter.  Everyone stares at him.

“You-You all are so easy to fool!”  Keith said through laughter. “I’d never hurt this boy!”  He brought Lance closer in a protective hug. “I’m pretty fond of him.  He’s what you’d all call a friend.” He says.

Lance just smiles and got out of his grasp.  He hops down with a smile, before all the people of his sister nation.

“Hello everyone.  I’m from the Southern Water Tribe, my name is Lance.”  He says. “And this guy, what he said is true, we’re friends.  His name is Keith.” Lance gave everyone a hopeful look. “But you will all know him as the Avatar.”

Everyone stood back to look at Keith, he just waves.

“Also we have friends behind the gate, so can you open that up as well?”  Lance asks. A soldier got in Lance’s face and points a spear right at him.

“How can we trust you?”  He snaps. Lance lightly touches the spear and got in the man’s face himself.

“Trust me, if he were working for the Fire Nation-”  He yanks hard on the spear, showing his strength as well as getting the man closer.  “-he’d be dead.” He says in a low voice. The soldier backs away from Lance.

Lance looks at the other soldiers and smiles.

“Now open the gate for my friends who are out there, they can explain much more than me.”  Lance smiles. “I’m just here to show you that he’s on our side.” Lance said. The soldiers looked at each other awkwardly then back at the gate.

They opened it and saw Ulaz and Shiro sitting there on the small boat.

“Finally.”  Shiro mumbles, he uses airbending to push the boat to shore.  Alongside the other boats, Ulaz’s seemed small. They walked on land and saw what the floor was made of.  “Is this ice?”

“Yes, the poles have no solid ground.”  Ulaz said. “So ice is what they consider their ground.”  They walk up to their friends.

Lance waves happily, Keith right next to him and Black standing there letting people pet him.

“I did it!”  Lance said happily.  Shiro nods.

“Yep, we’re in.”  Shiro says. “Now we have one thing left to do.”

“And that is what?  May I ask?” A low voice spoke up, everyone in the area stops and bows.  Except the few who didn’t recognize the voice. They looked over at a man with dark skin and white hair.  Lance’s eyes went wide and bows before him.

“Am I seeing this correctly?”  He asks. Keith walks up and nods.

“Yes sir.  May I ask who you are?”  Keith asks the man.

“My name is Alfor, I am the chieftain of the Northern Tribe.”  Just then a smile grew on his face. “Welcome to the Northern Palace, Avatar.”

**Author's Note:**

> Other characters will arrive soon, please be patient with this story!!!


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